"Your Episodes" broken 15s skip on Android Auto

[albertwenty1]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Pixel 8a & Android Auto (Toyota)

Operating System

Android 14

Recently, Spotify's Android Auto controls broke for podcasts, but only for "Your Episodes" playlist. 15s skip forward and backward were replaced with skip ahead and back in the podcast queue, and speedup was replaced with 15s back.

Here is what the UI looks like when playing a podcast episode directly (not via "Your Episodes"):

normal podcast play screen, with speedup, 15s forward and backward buttons

This is important because the two buttons surrounding play/pause are tied to the driver's steering wheel forward/backward tactile buttons. A driver can skip around in an episode without looking down, and without fumbling through multiple layers of touchscreen controls.

Here is what the same interface looks like when playing podcasts via "Your Episodes":

bad controls that default to skipping to next or previous podcast via Android Auto when using "Your Episodes"

Note that this isn't just an "inconsisten UI" bug — it is a major safety issue. Since the default buttons closest to the middle "Play/Pause" button are the ones tied to the steering wheel forward/back controls, these are the only ones available to the driver who wants to keep their eyes on the road. Even worse, navigating to the "forward 15s" control in this "Your Episodes" configuration requires navigating to the three-dot menu and another layer of button overlays on the touchscreen. Moving 15s forward/backward is such a common use-case in listening to podcasts that this is why Spotify has always kept the 15s buttons as default foward/backward interface (in Android Auto, for headphones, on UI, etc), but this was recently changed for some reason - likely a missed regression. And presents a dangerous divergence from user expectation that is likely a ticking time bomb; this will cause road accidents at some point in the future if it has not already.

Please don't mark this as a feature request. It is a bug. Severity high for safety reasons. Spotify does not want to be partly repsonsible for encouraging drivers to stare at their touchscreen instead of using tactile controls for most-used feature paths.

[mattm11]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Pixel 9 Pro / Google Pixel Buds Pro (v1)

Operating System

Android 15

My Question or Issue

As of a few days ago, when listening to a podcast and I double tap on my google pixel buds pro (v1), they skip forward an episode. This always used to skip forward 15 seconds.

Is this a bug or a feature?

[hydrogeochick]

Same here. Very irritating! Just noticed it last week.

[kalebrabe]

Having the same issue as others where the steering wheel buttons now cause the entire podcast to skip ahead instead of just skipping 15 seconds. Like others, this only seems to happen when using the "Your Episodes" section. This seems to be a major safety concern because instead of just pressing the button on the steering wheel, you now have to take your eyes off the road, tap the 3 dots to even make the 'skip ahead' icon visible, and then tap on that several times. 

[albertwenty1]

any update on this? it's been many months. seriously considering ditching my spotify sub and replacing with YTMusic — which still has correct controls for Android Auto for podcasts.

[Libmandude]

Still occurring for me. Galaxy s23Ultra

[amazingakita]

i've found it happened on the small screen of a galaxy flip 4 as well - looks like it's a deeper issue than just android auto.

[miketonybill]

I was having this issue, too, and it was fixed when I got in the car yesterday!

[miketonybill]

JK it's broke again 😑

[AlejaR]

Hey folks,

Thanks for all your replies here.

We really appreciate the time you took to let us know about this. We'd like to continue investigating this behavior, so please remember to send us all the details @Vasil asked for above. That way, we can pass all this important info onto the right team.

Keep us in the loop!

[miketonybill]

Your affected devices: moto g 5G (2022)

Their OS version: Android 13

Your current Spotify app versions: 8.9.90.127

When this has started occurring and if it has been after a particular event like an app or OS update: I just started noticing it one day, probably a little over a month ago

If the issue happens when using the phone only or when connecting to another device. If another device is involved, what is it and how do you connect to it (Bluetooth/ USB/ etc.)?

The issue is that the default forward and backward for podcasts has changed from moving 15 sec to skipping ahead to the next episode or track or restarting the episode. This is the default--where it wasn't before--on the lock screen of my phone, including when using the "skip" shortcut of holding down the up or down volume buttons while the screen is locked (which used to skip 15 seconds and now behaves as a track skip). This also swapped the default when using Android Auto, which is how I got to this thread. 

And note that it was functioning as it used to for about a day on or around Nov 4. 

[albertwenty1]

AlejaR, thank you for the reminder to include the requested information. Can I ask if the dev team is confused about this? it's 100% reproducible across all Android users on the reported versions (the latest few available), on Android Auto, on headphone controls, and on lock screen controls — all of which show the music skip controls instead of the podcast skip controls when listening to Podcasts that have been placed in Your Episodes.

[SilentZyx]

The same issue here on a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, have been following this thread since the beginning. Could this be on purpose as a test to make ads harder to skip over?

[miketonybill]

Yeah, that was my assumption 

[BigD78]

PLEASE FIX THIS! Same issue for a couple of months... It happens with Android auto as well as my pixel buds. I'm running Android 15 with the latest Spotify on a pixel XL pro

[hostonthecoast]

Do not change android safety features. Steering wheel skip 15 sec function was removed and manual phone or touch screen required. Do not make changes to the app that require distracted driving activities

[hostonthecoast]

This was an app change, not a glitch in the software. Reloading does not change the app functionality. Spotify needs to return the app to its previous design. Users can not fix this.

[hz567]

Why should I do a clean install when you obviously haven't listened to what the issue is? It is detailed in the original post what the issue is. Instead of telling us a nonsensical solution being to reinstall the app , instead fix the issue.

[drs7]

I have the same issue in Android Auto and it randomly switches back between the -15 / +15 and the skip track functionality. I haven't been able to figure out what drives this behavior.

[natek149]

Spotify, why is this still broken? All I want to do is be able to assign the backward button in the car to rewind 15 sec, and forward to fast forward 15 sec, instead of having it skip to the next or previous track. This used to work a few months ago. Why would you remove that optionality? 

[Skargo]

Yes, please fix this!! It's super unsafe and just kinda sucks. When you skip to the next podcast it doesn't remember where you were with the previous on either!