Removal of desktop notifications

[Rorey]

On May 15th, we will be turning off the in-app notifications "bell" on desktop. We are continuously working to improve and simplify our notifications features, and this change will allow us to shift our focus to email and push notifications. We are also working on completely new ways of keeping you up-to-date with new album releases, helping you discover new music, and know what your friends are up to.

To make sure you have your email and push notifications set up the way you'd like, check out the steps here.

Please share any feedback you have here in the Community. We're listening, and will pass it all on to the team.

[Gelenkbusfahrer]

Bring the bell back! Thank you!

[kongas]

The notification bell was the best functionality in Spotify and my way of finding out when the artists I follow released new music. I've loved Spotify since I first got it in 2008, but the desktop app has just become worse over the past year, and now that the notifications are gone I have to give up my loyalty. Good bye Spotify, and Hello Apple Music!

[Rusom]

To put it short: You guys **bleep**ed up. Bigtime! Bring back the bell ASAP!

[ant2192643]

Can we get this fixed? This was the best feature on spotify.

[user-removed]

In the meantine you can check out these Idea threads about the Bell icon below, give some Kudos and leave a comment.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Desktop-Playlists-Bring-playlist-notifications-back/idi-...

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Desktop-Bring-back-Notifications-from-followed-Artists/i...

[small2cats]

darn I don't know how decisions like this ever make it to the implementation stages. Who has the time to check the individual emails and then go to the hyperlink and listen to the song? Wasn't it much simpler to use the bell to check what's new and check it out instantly from within the desktop app itself? WTH spotify? Just removed the one of the most used features of the desktop client in the name of simplification, adding like ten more steps to do the same thing which took two clicks. You guys definitely f***** up this time. Seriously pissed right now!

[peanut_larry]

This is a horrible change. Where we used to have a one-click hub for new releases from the artists we follow, we now have the unnecessary step of going through our emails to get the list of new releases. How is this, in any way, an improvement? If you have something in the works, great, but don't take away a feature that makes USING YOUR SERVICE EASIER. It would be a different story if the "New Releases for you" in your discover section was actually just a list of all of the new releases from artists I am actively following instead of the hodge podge of less than 15 poor recommendations. 

Discovering NEW releases is a nearly all I use Spotify for and the Notification Bell made Spotify a clear choice of streaming service for me. I have unsubscribed and am now in limbo until their notification methods come back out of the internet dark ages. Whatever "comepletely new ways" of notifications you all are coming up with better beam them straight into my consciousness because you broke one of the best features of your service.

[FayeWay]

Hi

As someone who hates getting spam and ridiculous amounts of e-mails (e-mails which I only tend to check once a week), I find the removal of the notification bell most annoying and just wanted to give you this feedback. I really don't see why things have to be changed unecessarily. I don't want push notifications on my phone either as I have limited data usage so want to keep push notifications to a minimum. Please consider bringing the 'in Spotify' notifications back. Why make constant changes for no apparent reason? This is so frustrating! The notification bell was the easiest, most convenient way of me keeping track of my favourite artists.

Thanks for your advice in advance

Faye

[sidechained]

I've been following the bell notifications thread for a while now and yet to find a single response that says it's a good idea. I don't know why you would dispose of this feature. I follow so many artists and valued that button as a place I can check in on a weekly basis for latest tracks. Notifications on my phone and email get LOST in a world of 00's of other emails and notifications. Knowing I could return to my laptop, open up Spotify and see what's new from the artists I followed was really important to me.

You say that this change has kicked in from 15th May and that I should be getting emails of any notifications? Nothing in my inbox, even Junk.

Would love one of you guys to justify this change? 

At the very least you could dump all the new releases into my Discover Weekly playlist?

Don't let me down now Spotify.

[morganleesnow]

I thought the idea was to improve Spotify, based on what users wanted... typically that means when a 'problem' has 100 kudos or more, correct?  This thread was referenced in this post https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Desktop-Bring-back-Notifications-from-followed-Artists/i... , which has over 150 kudos, and yet, is marked as "not right now"

PLEASE stop removing features! We used to be able to see what our friends were listening to with a playlist, when a playlist was updated, and when artists we like post new tracks... the way this is going, soon we might as well not have any connections at all like Apple Music - the main reason many of us chose spotify in the first place!! Also not all of us use mobile as our primary listening device. 

Give us some support here Spotify!

[nthnhlms]

---

@gareth8 wrote:

Essential reading for all members of the Spotify Product Development Team:

So yet more vital functionality removed then, to add to everything else that's vanished over the past couple of years? Another slap in the face for the power users.

---

.

[alv4]

God, why you do this? why you remove useful functions always?

I don't get it. YOU ALWAYS DO EVERYTHING WRONG

[yruf]

I have just been hit with the update that removes the bell icon from the desktop app, and I'm afraid I disagree strongly with you decision to remove it. It looks like I'm not alone with this. Unfortunately many users chose to use childish and offensive language to convey their opinion, however it looks like there is a genuine need for something that you simply removed, without offering some sort of replacement.

For me personally, I need the ability to look back at those notifications from time to time, trying to find announcements _from the musicians I follow only_.

I see you have been beefing up the functionality in the Discover and New Releases tab. I think the functionality you took away would fit there quite nicely. Looks like you attempted to take a shortcut here by not thinking this through entirely, or not communicating the intent properly, or only implementing a half-baked version of the intent.

Good luck fixing this.

[jazzman20]

It's now ten days since you informed us of this abortion of an idea and still no,zero nada nyet indication that you are "listening".

[Gelenkbusfahrer]

and then used this
Go to C:/Users/<Name>/Appdata/Roaming/Spotify
 
1. Make a new empy text file
2. Name it Spotify_new.exe
3. Right click the file and make the file read only
 
1. Make a new empty text file
2. Name it Spotify_new.exe.sig
3. Right click the file and make the file read only

Actually this don't work anymore. At least on win 10. Spotify still updates itself, and the bell vanishes.

Anyway, think the time has come to say bb to spotify and to say hello to itunes.

[kub9001]

that's merely insane

at https://support.spotify.com/us/account_payment_help/account_settings/how-to-get-notifications/ you can read:

"We are continuously working to improve and simplify our notifications features, so we’re shifting our focus to email and push notifications. As such, we will be turning off in-client notifications on desktop ("The Bell") in or around May 15, 2016. If you have comments or ideas around this change, you can join the conversation at our Community here."

( and if you click  on "join the conversation" link, youi will get : " You do not have sufficient privileges for this resource or its parent to perform this action. " )


It isn't improved, nor simplified, and "The Bell" went back at 20 May.
Should we go back and forth from email and spotify clients? How this could be read as an improvement?

Spotify users wants to be able to keep track their favs, they didn't get any kind of alert about this.... 


Again, just insane.

[JakeFSX]

Guys this is an absolute joke, i used the bell for notifications all the time to discover music! No one is going to want emails or push notifications instead of having a really easily usable in app solution. 

Please sort this out or i will consider leaving Spotify and moving to something else as it's really annoying not having it. 

[Nandikesha]

I've been a paid subscriber since 2012 and converted more than a dozen friends to Spotify Premium. I follow thousands of artists and use Spotify for hours every day, primarly on the desktop client. 

This "simplification" is NOT an "improvement". It is not a simplification on the user end to be forced to toggle back and forth between email and the client when a convenient menu listing all notifications is possible. It's not an improvement to actively obstruct users from discovering new music. This change completely undermines the first thing Spotify says about itself in its About Us: "With Spotify, it’s easy to find the right music for every moment – on your phone, your computer, your tablet and more." 

New music by artists I love is the right music for me, and now it's significantly harder to find it. 

If Spotify refuses to listen to its users, as seems likely given every other feature-removing "improvement" they've rolled out, the only positive next step I can dream of is a total re-working of the Browse-->New Music section to visually represent ALL new releases by EVERY artist we follow. That's an idea I could get behind.

As it is now, I see three options: Spotify Companion App, install old desktop client version, or utilize a site like albumoftheyear.org to do manually what the Notifications Bell did for me automatically. 

Are you listening yet, Spotify? 

[BigChicken]

The interesting thing is, when I quit Spotify and reopen it, the bell flashes - then dissapears.  

So my question: Is it still there and they're just not allowing us access to the content?

[kub9001]

even worse!  The bell appears, the system flags them as read, then disappears.