Group Session bugs

[Remy2112]

Plan

Premium Family

Country

UK

Device

Samsung Galaxy 9

My Question or Issue

Just testing out the Group Session feature this morning at work with my friend, and having some issues. First off, if i connected with my headphones unplugged, then plugged them in to start listening, it was disconnect the session. So tried scanning the code with headphones already in and that seemed to work.

However, it then was playing with no volume on my phone. the songs were 'playing' as the time was elapsing, but no sound. The volume was turned up so i know it wasn't that, and as soon as i left the session, songs were playing just fine. I'm at work so can't test it with headphones unplugged, but that would be of no use to me anyway. Weird thing was that it was working just fine for my friend, who was the 'lead' account in the session (in that i scanned his code).

I know it's a new feature, but I feel that for the £15pm I pay for Premium Family membership, this shouldn't happen. Any ideas from anyone, or anyone had the same issues?

[whizz7]

I have the same problem.

Group session between Samsung Galaxy 8 and a Samsung Galaxy 9. Only the lead account has audio, the one that has connected doesn't. How do I solve this?

This issue makes the group session worthless as there is no 'group' despite being connected and you can see the music plays you can't hear anything.

[slamhound]

I have the exact same problem. Group Session starts up but only the host phone hears the audio. Other device is silent.

[CNeedham]

Exactly the same problem here. Can join the group session but have no sound and inserting/removing headphones kicks me out.

This would be such a great feature but it just doesn't work.

Also strange you HAVE to scan a code. In order to listen online with someone I've had to get them to email me their code so I can scan it on my phone. How backwards.

[slamhound]

I think the function was not made for listening together but rather to have many people manage a playlist/queue playing on ONE playing device. Weird since listening together must be the preferred use for something like this, instead Spotify actively shuts off audio on the client devices. Disappointing!

I want to listen to the same music as my girlfriend at the same time when we are commuting or even when we are at our separate work places or travelling.

[pedroegg]

The same problem here! This makes no sense, we are actually in home whole time due to COVID-19, and we can only hear the sound if we are near to the host?

[Sham69]

Yes, the same problem here just like everyone else. I know this technology is available as you can create a listening party on discord where multiple different devices can listen to the same song, and if you skip or rewind everyone is still listening to the same song in sync from different devices. That feature is amazing and I really hope Spotify listens to us and adds this same feature on our mobile devices so that we can create listening parties and many people on different devices can listen to the same song, instead of it only playing from one device. Spotify please add this feature you on the right track!!

[Evrenulusoy]

I think it should be easy to fix this thing but first post is almost from 6 months ago 😞

[Sham69]

-the posts from months ago were people in beta testing, this feature was
just recently released to the public, and if you looks at it it’s still in
beta, so there’s a good chance Spotify will fix it.

[LeonardoD4]

Me too, please solve it. Spotify culo.

[nash90]

Have the same issue, only the host can hear and no one else.

Solve the bug please 🙂

[aburnicle21]

I've had the exact same thing happen, down to the headphones being plugged in causing it to stop.

[butthole2ofthem]

Now having used the feature and reading the directions, the point of this feature is to have multiple devices controlling one device. What a dumb feature. Anyone can change the song at any time. Seems like creating a shared/group playlist would be the better way to listen as a group so only one person actually controls the playback but all are able to contribute tracks to listen to.

So disappointing! We were excited to use what we thought the feature was going to be while cycling, so we'd be listening to the same thing at the same time through our own devices and headphones. I guess I will create a suggestion for that to be a feature now, since this one is useless.

[PyDust]

Super buggy the way that this feature works. I used Spotify for a long time went away to YTMusic for a bit and was going to come back because I missed certain abilities of Spotify. However, a huge feature of YTMusic my office mate and I use is sharing a queue on our office Google Home speakers. The issue here is that using connect the sound would cut in and out and you have to connect to the home group of speakers first then start the Spotify listening group. If anything gets out of order the whole thing is **bleep** up and we have to restart the steps. Then God forbid you accidentally change the listening device once the group is going, because getting back takes like 5 minutes. with YT Music if you were on the same network you just simply joined that device or device group then the queue was there. Having Spotify Connect I would think that this type of connection would be possible and work through their own proprietary connection types.

[Mihail · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone,

Thanks posting here in the Community! We'll gladly shed some light on the situation.

The Group session feature was initially intended to allow Premium users in the same location to connect separate accounts and create a shared listening experience. This is great for parties for example, where each user can put their songs in the queue of the Group session from their personal device.

However, we've heard your feedback and the Group session can now be joined remotely with the users having the option to listen on their own device. You can find instructions on how to do this in this Support Article. Keep in mind that this feature is still in Beta, so the way it works could change.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted if you have any questions.

[slamhound]

That's amazing! Enjoying listening together right now, this is how it's supposed to be!

Will file new bug where music is not synchronized between listeners (affects running and dancing scenarios where steps will be off-beat). And yes, there are most certainly other scenarios.

A little weird how you guys don't seem to do your service design but rather hack together functionality in some basement and make it up as it goes along. Sure, there's satisfaction in that too but maybe for a startup in uncharted territory - all this however was pretty easy to spot!
Thanks for listening to the community, even if it's a little late!

Unable to click "Accept as Solution" as per suggested.

[Remy2112]

Hi Mihail. I would like to try this but i don't have the feature. I just updated my Spotify on my Galaxy S9 but when i click the devices option in the corner of the screen, everything about group session has disappeared, and i can only see options to connect to speakers etc. Same on the web app, don't see anything about it there. Is this because the beta is closed and the feature is not being rolled out?

Many thanks

[Ivan]

Hey there @Remy2112,    

Thanks for posting. We're happy to help.     

We can recommend performing a clean reinstall of the app to make sure you have Spotify's latest version. Follow the steps here on how to do that. 

If that doesn't to the trick - would you mind sending us a screenshot? Just attach the image to your next response to us by using the Insert Photos option in the post editor. This way we can take a closer look at the issue.     

We'll look out for your reply.
 

Cheers!  

[Moszeaa]

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