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.

[user-removed]

It's been about 5 hours since I posted my thoghts, and despite it having been gone now for weeks, my notification bell has gloriously returned!  I didn't have to re-install or re-lanch, it's simply back.

Wow.  Not sure why/how, but I'm very glad to see my old friend 🙂

[filipealvaro]

Well, my bell is finally back.

From my side, and just if someone from spotify reads this, 80% of the time that I use spotify (more than 8 hours a day) is in the office where I'm loged in on gmail with my work email.

I receive notifivations on my personal email which is logical and so with no "bell" no notifications..

Bell is back and hope to stay!

[Billie6]

Please bring back the desktop notification feature

[Billie6]

Where is the old page of notifications?

[gareth8]

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@Rorey wrote:

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.

---

Right, so you're say you're turning them off then suddenly everybody starts getting them again. Did someone hit the 'on' button, by mistake? Or is it a case of the left hand not knowing what the right one's doing? Or - and I hope that this is the case - did Spotify listen to our feedback and sensibly reversed their decision? I'd be interested in the answer.

[ke_schi]

Had it for a one day - now it's gone again. Why the hell remove such a simple and useful feature? I don't want email notifications and I don't always want to use my phone for push. Really frustrating and incomprehensible!

[hans-jürgen]

I always liked that option, because I usually delete email notifications after reading them. And I don't think I will collect them now in a special folder to search through it and click on them individually, so basically the very useful information about new releases of my followed artists is lost, as is the reason for following an artist on Spotify at all.

[gronbuske]

I'm actually a bit mad about this... I've been waiting for a small infity for the bell, thinking, one day it will return. Then suddenly, one day I see a bunch of notifications and the little bell. I am overly delighted and praise all gods in the pantheon of the north and start exploring all new releases. The next day I sit down at my computer, looking forward to continue exploring just to notice that my beloved bell is gone again... darn you spotify!

[redddirtgal1]

Seriously, this is beyond a joke. You ask for feedback stating it is 'important' to you and you blatantly ignore it! WE ALL WANT THE NOTIFICATIONS BELL BACK! Not difficult to grasp is it? There is no other way of receiving this information that we (those paying customers who actually use the facility everyday) would rather see. Like the others my bell was reinstated for one glorious day and has, once more, been deleted. It's quite evident from the posts, tweets, and comments across all of your various social media sites that this has been an incredibly unpopular decision and one you should reverse permanently if you truly value your customers and their user experience!
Regards from a customer service manager who wouldn't be doing her job correctly if she had let this many complaints go by unanswered and unresolved!

[FunkishAudio]

But why fix what wasn't broken?
That was a fine feature. Right there in front of me, I got my new release notifications, and could refer back to them easily.
I looked forward to opening Spotify & seeing what was new!
I hate push notifications. I don't want stuff popping up while I'm working.
When you say email, are you referring to the messages box that is now where the notifications bell used to be? Will new release notifications go there from now on?

[filipealvaro]

Well NOTIFICATIONS BELL GONE AGAIN..

Really?? One day???

Guys, can you please stop playing with that button or get someone working on it that doesn't shake that much??

I'll try again:

THE DESKTOP BELL is needed. Is not a stupid extra and email will not make it!! I work with my company's gmail loged in not my personal.

Not everybody is on the phone all the time.. I work on a computer!!

I don't see the point of having this discution forum if you don't care about what your clients, regular users and payers of premium for years have not a proper response at least explaning why we are all wrong.

Because guys, it really looks like you are changing for the sake of doing somehting (like if you are bored).

#SPOTIFYBELLBUTTONBACK

[jazzman20]

Just want to be sure I understand.  You're making the service harder to use?  Deliberately?  On purpose.  The indiividual who came up with this idotic idea needs to be fired yesterday.

[pete123456]

This is a really poorly thought out change, I work in software delivery and could not imagine removing a feature without first understanding how the feature is being used and giving the user a viable alternative (of which there is no way in the current desktop app).

And I really don't see how filling my inbox with notifications is considered a better user experience than the notifications icon inside the app - which everyone expects these days given how twitter/facebook work (note how facebook started with email notifications and moved to in-app - this is a step backwards!).

 

This feature is fundamental to how I and I'm sure many others use Spotify to keep up to date with their music and as a result I'm now considering jumping ship after being a member for a number of years.

All in all this is really disappointing and I hope you reconsider the decision.

[rjinks]

Adding to the pile of messages Spotify support hasn't responded to.

I need the notification bell to want to continue using the service. I used to use Google Music, it was a good service. Perfectly happy to go back.

Cheers

[mapdock]

Here's a vote for putting this feature back in some form. Following artists and being notified when they add new music has been of huge value. I'm not overloaded with notifications, and they weren't at all obtrusive. Maybe people weren't using the Follow feature enough or complained about the bell, but for me it's been one of Spotify's killer features. Thanks for letting us know, but maybe make this optional so people who still want the follow/notification option can have it!

[wolflambert]

This is plainly idiotic. There is no centralised way to check new releases anymore, and that makes no sense at all. I don't know why I'm still sticking with Spotify when it seems like functions I use regularly are removed every week or so for no clear reason besides the standard "improving" gibberish (whatever that means). 

[user-removed]

Just so I know we're all on the same page...
In addition to the Bell being gone (mine came back for a day and dissapeared again), the Activity Feed (which I belive to be linked to the bell) is also gone.

There was a thread about two years ago to bring the Activity Feed back, and it came back, but mine is gone nad has been for the same time as my bell (or clse enough to the same amount of time).

Is everyone missing the Activty Feed in addition to the Bell? I really want both of these back.
I've been stumbling around trying to find out which playlists are updated, and who has added new songs, and it's just so annoying now.

Are the Activty Feed and Bell two different issues, or the same?

[wolflambert]

I can still see the activity feed (I never really used it, though). The bell, however, is gone.

[XsomX]

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@filipealvaro wrote:

Well NOTIFICATIONS BELL GONE AGAIN..

Really?? One day???

---

MINE TOO. :((((

Give it back, please!

[XsomX]

I can't understand your decision. It's like me and a huge percent of users were sticking with Spotify cause we had got our favourite music just under our fingers and we knew when somethings new appeared on the market.

Notifications bell was the second most important factor that made me wanted to pay for this service. And now it's gone. I hate mailing spam, I don't want to have any push notifications on my phone. I want to have that stupid bell in the right corner of my desktop app. I want to get back from work, sit in my chair, start Spotify app and listen to everything which was released while I was away. Gimme just that. I don't want complicated algorythms. I just want to be notified when one of my beloved 753 artists will publish something.

 THANK YOU.