New and Improved Android Widget

[Amayy]

Spotify is bringing a new update to the home screen widget on Android devices. This update will help you get more out of it than before.

The new widget will make it simpler and faster to access your favourite content on Spotify.

So what is changing?

Here is a quick look into both the old and new widgets:

As you can see in the picture above, the new widget brings more choices for you to interact with your Spotify app.

The old widget helped you with some basic playback controls like pause, play, and change content. The new one will help you quickly play from the recommendations.

When you are playing something, the widget will contain an NPV (now playing view), just like before. But now there are more items for you to choose from without needing to navigate to the app itself.

Clicking on a recommendation will foreground the playlist/podcast inside of the app.

 

The new widget will contain the controls alongside recommendations based on your listening habits. There will be up to 5 suggested items personalized just for you. This includes playlists, albums, podcasts and audiobooks.

Is this available only to Premium users?

No. This improved widget is available to everyone using Spotify on an Android device. You do not need to be a Premium member just for the widget. 

But I am not seeing this change, why?

The best way to make sure that you receive the new features and changes is by keeping the latest version of the Spotify App. So make sure your App is updated and you will get the new widget soon.

It’s available for Android version 5 or higher, Spotify client 8.8.50 and upwards.

Have feedback? Comment below!

If you are facing any issues or have a suggestion, feel free to reply to this thread with your feedback.

[mvpenguin]

Thank you for the reply . 

What I meant from my comment was "The new one will help you quickly play from the recommendations." this thing does not work for me and i found the process rather slow since instead of playing from widget i get redirected to the app.

[Amayy]

Hey @mvpenguin thanks for the response. As of now, if you click any recommendation then it will take you to that item in the app itself from where you can play. If you want to submit an idea about the widget, feel free to do so in the Ideas board.

For anything else, don't hesitate to contact us.

[avyx]

Plan

Free

Country

United States

Device

moto power g 

Operating System

Android 11

My Question or Issue

when i looked at my home screen this morning, where the Spotify widget is usually, it showed up telling me to add the widget, but when I did add it again, it displayed the same message. solutions?

[CoolJguy]

Would be cool to also be able to set up the playlists for the buttons so that i can add my prefer playlists

[Severynn]

Is there a way to get rid of this message on the old widget? Because tapping any of the options just doesn't work 😕

 

[ementi]

Same issue since yesterday 😢

[chewbs]

Not a fan of the new widget at all. It takes up way more space than the old one with no way for me to resize it to a smaller usable size (for me defaulting to 5x3 that is more than half the screen space I have for icons/widgets) for no real reason what so ever. Yes having recommendations on the widget is a good idea but what is the point if tapping it opens the app instead of playing the media? Also this update has intentionally/unintentionally broken the previous widget. 

[chewbs]

The new widget broke the old one, shame really since the old one did what it needed to do and did it just fine while the new one adds features but so far manages to do them a bit meh.

[Skipilini]

I also have Android version 11 and a broken widget. The widget does not respond at all when pressing "Not now" or "Add widget".

[maramix]

Hello,

I totally agree to the comments above with the new widget being too big.

In my opinion, it didn't need more features.

Would it be possible to be able to resize it to 4x1 for it to return as it was before since the old widget is unusable anymore ?

[maramix]

Also, there is plenty of space in the 4 tiles wide to add the random and replay buttons (see squares in image attached), it would make me use the new features in addition to playing the clicked playlist instead of opening the app since I always listen to my playlists in random.

[F0rge]

The new widget is stuck on my home screens, on top of my icons! I hold my finger on it but no options appear. How can I remove it??

Android 12

[Riisvay]

I am having this issue as well. I've tried restarting my phone and uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but it still has that same message. Clicking on it does nothing.

[L1nden]

Same here:/

[RHythMANiac]

Having the same issue as @Severynn's; widget crashing and i am unable to play directly from the widget whenever I am unlocking my Android phone. I Have updated to ver 8.8.72.630 and i am using Redmi note 8 Pro with Android 11

Please help!

[BrokeSpot]

Same. Fixing things that work. Feels like a make work project that has negative impact on customer experience. Fix this **bleep**.

[Skipilini]

Spotify support is aware of the problem but can not reproduce. I have not the same problem on an old version of Android. It would be great if anyone with the same issue could tell which version of Android they are running. 

[eaf1829]

Yeah, the old, smaller and more compact widget is broken now. The new one is way too f-ing big and clunky. If I wanted a widget to take up my whole screen, I'd just open the app.

[HerrDok]

There's a bug where it sabotages the old widget if you don't have the new one, on one of the pages. It literally gets the old widget stuck on not now and the other option and neither can be clicked.

So basically either use the new one or keep a new one isolated on some distant page 3 or 4, to use the old one.

Not an Android version or device specific bug, both the tablet and phone have the latest droid available, and diff brand oppo and Lenovo.

[agulab]

I'm on Redmi Note 8 Pro and as others said the widget is now broken. I have already reinstalled the app and restarted my phone, but the good old widget is stuck on "Not now" and "add widget" options. I have no other widget to add, so now I'm widgetless and I REALLY used it before this breaking update, it was my only entering point to Spotify on my phone. Please, fix this bug.