Latest Android update changes menu to iOS style

[wizardbynight]

Why have they done this? Material design uses the three-line 'drawer' menu that slides in from the left. This style is consistent throughout the majority of Android apps now. Why have Spotify suddenly changed it to a bottom menu like iOS? Annoying.

[multikev]

Seriously shocked by this. Even Apple didn't disregard the Android platform when doing the Apple Music app for Android.

This is something we constantly admonish our junior designers for doing.

This feels like the 2010 all over again.
Google has a really good page on how to do this well:
https://design.google.com/articles/design-from-ios-to-android/

[multikev]

As someone who works in dev/design of apps, i'll tell you the answer is that it's actually

incredibly hard to do that. Particularly maintaining it over time.

[multikev]

Yes, but it's not used by any one. If you read their other guideines about switching from iOS to Android, they recommend this approach.

Either way, it's not about what the rule is, but what's good. On Android you have 3 UIS stacked on top of each other. The Android bar, the tabs and the Now Playing bar. This is quite overloaded, reduces spaces for lists and makes it very easy to tap incorrectly.

[user-removed]

I really don't care if the UI looks like iOS. As long as its functional and easy to use. Not saying the current UI is great. It could definitely use some polish. There is a lot of wasted space. However, the persistent search icon is a huge improvement. Hated needing to go to hamburger menu to search. I also appreciate that I can very quickly switch to Browse and Library. One handed navigation is also far superior now. I don't notice a big difference in number of songs that are visible in playlist compared to the old UI. YMMV though based on device size.

[jdawg88]

For everyone saying that music streamers are fickle, being able to search more easily (and navigate away from whatever artist you're listening to) probably isn't going to help! Wonder if there will be a measurable impact on the duration of time songs are played...

[david1pro]

I agree this looks horrible. For Android users, the new interface isn't intuitive at all, and hitting the buttons now on the bottom of the screen are very inconveient when holding and tapping on the phone with the same hand. Just a horrible decision all around. 

[jdawg88]

One more thought on this update. The search button. When you tap it, it takes you to the search page, but you have to tap it again before your keyboard pops up and you can start searching. Wondering what the logic behind that is. The extra tap seems uneccessary.  

[MrPile]

The logic is that you tap twise on the search button at the bottom. That will trigger the search input.

/Pontus