The ♡ Heart button is being replaced with a (+) Plus button

[MattSuda]

In March 2023, the ♡ Heart button will start being replaced with a (+) Plus button for saving things to Your Library. Things that have been saved to Your Library will now show a green ✔ Check icon instead of a green Heart icon.

This new experience is now rolling out to the mobile and desktop apps first and will then come to the other apps (watch, TV, etc.) at a later time.

You can check out this Spotify news article for more information:

Save Your Favorite Songs, Podcasts, and More With Spotify’s Plus Button

In this post, we will show you how to use the new experience and answer your questions. You might have already seen this change being discussed in the Community recently.

New Experience:

                                   

Old Experience:

                      

How does the (+) Plus button work?

• The experience will remain similar for you. When you tap the (+) Plus button from the Now Playing View, songs will be saved to your Liked Songs. The only difference is that now you can quickly tap the (+) Plus button again to add the song to your other playlists too! When you tap the button again, you'll also see the other playlists that the song has already been added to with a green ✔ Check icon.

• The experience is the same for Podcast Episodes. You can tap the (+) Plus button to save podcast episodes to Your Episodes, and then tap the button again to add the podcast episode to your other playlists too.

• Once you tap on the (+) Plus button, the icon will change to a green ✔ Check to let you know that the track has been saved.
  
  
• The green ✔ Check icon also shows up next to the songs that are saved to Your Library on Album and Playlist pages. (but not when viewing your own playlists, only other playlists)
  
  When you see a green ✔ Check icon on a song, it means that it has been saved to Your Library. A song added to either (or both) Liked Songs or one of your own playlists counts as being saved to Your Library. Before with the heart button, the green heart icon meant that the song was saved only to your Liked Songs.
  
  If a song has a green ✔ Check icon because is has already been added to one of your playlists, you can still add it to your Liked Songs playlist. Tap on the green ✔ Check icon and select your Liked Songs playlist from the menu and it will be added.

• The (+) Plus button will also still let you save Playlists, Albums, and Audiobooks to Your Library.

• This change will not affect the things you have already saved to Your Library. The songs you've previously saved will remain in Liked Songs. The Playlists, Albums, Podcasts, and Audiobooks you've previously saved will remain in Your Library.

• The "Add to playlist" icon in the options menu will also become a (+) Plus, but the functionality remains the same.

FAQ:

This section will answer your frequently asked questions and will be updated with the latest answers.

Why are the 💚 green heart icons next to songs I've already liked missing? I used to be able to see the songs I've previously liked when viewing songs on Album and Playlist pages.

• The green 💚 Heart icon has been replaced with a green ✔ Check icon
  
  
• The green ✔ Check icon shows up next to the songs that are saved to Your Library on Album and Playlist pages. (but not when viewing your own playlists, only other playlists)
  
  
• When you see a green ✔ Check icon on a song, it means that it has been saved to Your Library. A song added to either (or both) Liked Songs or one of your own playlists counts as being saved to Your Library. Before with the heart button, the green heart icon meant that the song was saved only to your Liked Songs.
  
  
• If you don't yet see the green ✔ Check icon next to songs in track listings (Album and Playlist pages), you should see this once it rolls out to more users.

I want to add a song to a playlist from the Now Playing View, but I don't want to save it to my Liked Songs. Why do I have to save the song to Liked Songs first?

• The (+) Plus button will let you edit the destination of the song you liked. After you have tapped the button from the Now Playing View, you can tap it again to change or add it to more playlists.

• Alternatively, you can still add a song to playlists without saving it to Liked Songs. Go to the options menu by first tapping the "..." icon and then tap on "Add to Playlist" to select the playlist(s) you want to add the song to.

How do I remove a song from Liked Songs or my other playlists now?

How do I remove a podcast episode from Your Episodes or my other playlists now?

• Songs: This same function can now be done by tapping the green ✔ Check button on the Now Playing View or by going to the options menu and tapping on "Add to playlist". After tapping the button or the option in the options menu, uncheck the "Liked Songs" playlist and then tap on the green "Done" button at the bottom. You can also use this menu to remove the song from your other playlists.

• Podcast Episodes: This same function can now be done by tapping the green ✔ Check button on the Now Playing View, on Podcast pages, or by going to the options menu and tapping on "Add to playlist". After tapping the button or the option in the options menu, uncheck the "Your Episodes" playlist and then tap on the green "Done" button at the bottom. You can also use this menu to remove the podcast episode from your other playlists.

What happened to the "Like all songs" menu option on Album pages in the mobile app?

• This same function can now be done by tapping the "Add to playlist" menu option on an album page and then selecting the "Liked Songs" playlist.

What happened to the "Swipe left to Like" gesture to quickly like and unlike songs in the mobile app?

• When you use the "Swipe left to Like" gesture on songs in playlists or in album pages, the song will still be saved to Liked Songs. However, now when you swipe again, the "Add to playlist" menu will open up so you can now quickly add to or remove from Liked Songs and your other playlists all in one step.

Why can I no longer add a song to a playlist more than once using the "Add to playlist" menu in the mobile app? There used to be a popup telling me if a song was already added to a playlist and there was an option to ignore that and add it again.

• Right now the ability to add a song to a playlist more than once using the "Add to playlist" menu in the mobile app is currently not possible. As a workaround you can still add songs to a playlist more than once using the desktop app. In the desktop app, you can drag the song into the playlist, or use the "Add to playlist" option in the right click menu.

Feedback:

Where can I give my feedback about the new (+) Plus button?

• We welcome your feedback about this change. The best way to share your feedback is to comment here in this thread.

[vaajy]

Why? Just why? For what is this update?

I don't like it. Heart button is nicest. I don't see this add to library useful, as in EDM music there's rarely albums. And I absolutely do not want to add to my library anything than full albums. EDM, once again, is based on singles and compilations. It seems too complicated to use this.

Singles I do not want to add inside a library. Nor compilations. So for what is this update?

If I need to add something to the playlist, I just go the old way, and just do it.

Maybe you can get used to it, but video flows so fast you barely can see how it works.

Just give the option to heart back. It was also easy to see what is already liked.

I also want to mention that how to unlike song easily in this situation? Do I really need to go back?

To the liked tracks list just to unlike it? Or it seems I can just go to list view and remove the thing from it.

Again, one step more just to do a thing now is possible in one click.

When I am working on my hard dance lists, I absolutely have no need to add same track to more than one playlist. This new view is confusing when you see all the lists. Current option is just usable, so leave it. It seems you have nothing else to do.

[Prague]

Don’t quite understand the negativity on the thread for I see this as an advancement for artists and listeners. The (+) Plus button allows users to not only save songs to their library but also add them to playlists directly from the song page. This added functionality makes it easier for users to organize their music and discover new songs, ultimately enhancing the overall Spotify experience. Additionally, the Plus button is still a quick and easy way to show your appreciation for a song, just like the heart button it's replacing. 
I’m behind it,

-Prague the Dog

[ARSDADUDE]

Imagine the people who didn't read this post or didn't knew bout this but then complaining about missing heart has been takeover by the (+) button. Lol share this post as I do

[AndrewBlizard]

I can't imagine being mad over changing the shape of a button, but removing functionality because you wanted to change the shape of a button is highly unexpected and very disappointing. Features are added and removed seemingly at random with each update. I like the idea of being able to quickly add a song to one or more playlists after liking it, but removing the ability to see what songs I've liked on any screen is a huge step backwards.

[demicarre]

I liked to know effortlessly which songs I liked and witch one I didn't while looking at a playlist

[n_hpxx]

I AM OUTRAGED AND IN ABSOLUTE DISBELIEF BY THIS UPDATE! 

*Review as of 02/27/2023*

Why are you guys making an update that takes away the functionality that everyone has already been so accustomed to? Is this what the people wanted? Is this what the people have been asking for? I don't think so. 

I was feeling so much anxiety this morning when I realized that I couldn't add a liked song to my liked playlist automatically. I couldn't like a song while listening on the radio mix. What the heck? I was really driving and wondering why this is happening. I thought there was a glitch. I reset my phone and logged out and logged back in and literally exhausted whatever options I could think of in the moment... Literally not being dramatic but this ruined my day. I have grown so accustomed to organizing and figuring out where everything is with this heart icon. Now I have to see an ugly checkmark??? No one asked for this update. I want the heart icon back. Stop this nonsense. Work on figuring out a better algorithm with recommending better songs from non-mainstream artists or something. BUT REMOVING THE HEART BUTTON FOR LIKED SONGS FEATURE IS NOT IT. My liked songs playlist looks so cute with the heart buttons by them because I know that I LOVE these songs. I literally cannot understand for the life of me why this update would remove this heart icon button. 

I also left a one star review in the app store. If this new checkmark thing is going to be the new "norm" for Spotify, I'll move on over to Youtube Music and unsubscribe from this music streaming service. 

[LC99]

Thanks for this additional update (coming over from the other thread) 

really glad you guys have addressed that the heart function next to our liked songs in track lists/playlists will return as this was a comment a lot of users had. Look forward to receiving that back

one additional thing I’d like to mention: since my mobile app has transferred over to this new program it’s been unbelievably slow at launching and loading page to page compared to the previous version - would appreciate if you guys can look into that 

[kaworu_bloodpaw]

For those complaining about not being able to see what songs they have liked at a glance:

(From the FAQ section of the post above)

"The ability to see which songs you've previously liked will return to track listings soon. (Playlist and Album pages) We don't know yet if this icon will still be a green heart. The team is currently working on making this experience better."

Personally, I don't see much of a problem changing the heart to some other button, with increased functionality. Users have been asking for years for a better way to manage playlists, and this is how they're doing it. The symbol used to be a Plus anyway, years ago.

According to the blog post above, the Plus is coming to all other platforms soon. I would assume this means Spotify is planning to implement adding a song to multiple playlists there, too.

Thank you, Spotify, for creating the Community and allowing users to provide feedback on changes. You can't say that all the other music streaming platforms have the same transparency and communication.

[jovem1]

those complaining about "negativity" maybe need to grow up and realize that this thread is asking for FEEDBACK, where people who pay for this service get to give their input. if you want to have the kind of society where you just bootlick companies all day and thank them for ruining functionality and ease of use, you can go on and create that for yourself on a deserted island, but some of us aren't trying to be part of it.

spotify and countless other app developers have been on this trend of (for some reason) minimizing functionality for years now and people blindly going along with the most stupid of changes are the ones encouraging it. why do my playlists STILL not loop automatically? why is the shuffle algorithm god awful? why is the ui getting WORSE and less intuitive every time they decide to tinker with it, for some reason? because you have people like those above who are thanking spotify for "listening to users" while actually not listening at all. imagine being so bored that you moderate a massive company's forums for free and tell the CONSUMERS to suck it up instead of telling the COMPANY to do better

and if the plus button was the "original" setting, why was it changed in the first place? and if "going back to the roots" is such a convincing reason to switch things around for no reason, let's just get rid of streaming apps altogether and go back to getting our music from shady sites online. but yes spotify, keep on making the least necessary changes possible, and those suck-ups above me in this thread, keep on supporting a company that doesn't care and won't ever thank you for your efforts in defending their integrity

[Soundofus]

To complete what said @MattSuda a bit above, when some years ago the + was abandoned to become a ❤️ there were as much controversies and angry people as it is now for the reverse... Conclusion : People are never happy 😂

Personally, being a long time Spotify user since 2009, I can say that a + is much more logic... Even if I have never used it... 🤣

[jovem1]

huh i wonder why, oh hold on i bet that version of spotify from 8 years ago still has the exact same issues as the current update because their teams are more concerned with pointless cosmetic changes than what actually matters to users. give me a break

i bet if spotify removed the function to listen to music or make playlists you would still have people in here going "youre all never happy! youre just complaining!" as if its our fault for wanting the service we pay for to work seamlessly and without hassle. grow tf up

[jovem1]

close the comments after asking for feedback IN THIS THREAD einstein? mute your email notifications

[BabyEcho0_YT]

look i like to help people but people are cancelling their subscriptions and going to Apple Music. I will try my very best to keep on telling people to listen to spotify but i can't go through the people that are just going to leave spotify forever but all of this if going back to my past on scratch and deleting my account cause people were just being mean so i just came onto the spotify community to help and i made it this far and people were saying my idea is no good and saying that it's useless and now the heart being a plus sign every time i try to help they just mute me and i can help them no more 

i don't want those people and i don't want you guys leave spotify all i just want to do is to enjoy the community and now the whole heart being a plus sign is not the community i use to know and some people are not working as a community 

Spoiler

a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

"the sense of community that organized religion can provide"

[JadonDrew]

If you’re “working on improving” the ability to see liked songs in your playslist track lists, shouldn’t you have waited on pushing that update until it was fully completed? I don’t understand the logic: in the meantime you just removed it? Seriously? In debating a cosmetic change you entirely removed the functionality of an important feature?

Making things dramatically worse then working towards correcting the issues you caused is an interesting career.

[Isadriendir]

Sincerely, why?

Who would ask for this change? The heart means more than "yeah, I added this song", it's more like "I really like this song, I love it". I'm no UI/UX expert myself, but if anyone wanted extra click to their heart's content, why don't you do it while keeping the same icon. People who ACTIVELY want the feature would use it regardless.

But what gives? 🫤

[olivrstal]

thank you, i think this is a really good change!

not too long ago i actually never used to make playlists but instead i just clicked the heart icon and mostly just listened to my "liked songs" playlist. but some weeks ago i started making playlists for different genres / styles cause my liked songs playlist was getting too big and sometimes i just want to listen to a specific type of music.

so after a couple of weeks using playlists now, my main issue with that was, that often i stumble across a track i wasn't totally sure if i added this song to a playlist already, so the only to ways to find out was to either going to that playlist and searching for that song or - and that's what i did - to try to add this song to that playlist again, only to get that message saying that it was already added. so just some days / weeks ago i actually thought to myself that there should be an easy way to see in what playlist a song maybe already is. so now it seems like i have to only click one time on the checkmark to see in which playlists a song already is. if that's so, then this is a really awesome change imo!

i hope i will also be able to see this on my mac, so i easily know in which playlists a song already is.

i mean i guess if i wasn't using playlists, it would be more of a negative change. cause now it takes 3 clicks to "unlike" a song instead of 1. so right off the top of my head i guess the most elegant solution maybe would've been to keep the like button and just add a plus button right next to it. but of course i can see that this might also not be optimal in terms of space and simplicity.

but yea, anyhow, for me and the way i use spotify since a couple of weeks, this is definitely a really nice change.

i do wonder tho... if i click the plus button, then click it again, remove a song from the "liked songs" playlist and then add it to another playlist and click "done". on the song page is there still a checkmark icon or is there a plus button again? i assume there is still the checkmark icon cause the song is still added to some other playlist (just not in the "liked songs" playlist anymore).

so let's say i add a song to a playlist via the 3 dots and "add to a playlist" way. i really hope that the plus button on the song page then also changes to a checkmark. can someone confirm thsi to me if this is true?

[ThatEnglishBloke]

Please bring back the heart. Not only was the animation beautiful, but I prefer to like a song while I’m listening to a new album/playlist/whatever, then come back and add it to my playlist(s) later.

Put the heart back, then a plus next to it for adding to a playlist of you want. There’s plenty of room for another button without removing the heart.

[oti2]

pls pls pls bring back the heart🙏🙏🙏

[_ayo]

love the plus button

[kaworu_bloodpaw]

@ayo4PF

Based on my experience with Spotify updates, it will take a couple of days to roll out worldwide.

If you don't have the update by next week, let us know and we can help you.