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Meaning of Blue Dots in Podcast-Lists

Meaning of Blue Dots in Podcast-Lists

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Operating System

Windows 10

 

My Question or Issue

What the **bleep** do the blue dot's stand for? They make no sense. I have full blue dots for Podcasts I haven't started, for some I started and for some I finished. How hard can it be to make it visible what shows I haven't watched yet? Also I can't download them in the Windows App, for god knows what reason?

 

Well, as usual no one will read this.... I don't know why I even bother.

Reply
16 Replies

Hey there @plexus

 

Thanks for searching for the answer you need here! 
 

When you click on the blue dot the short summary under the episode's title will expand and you can read the full text. 

 

You can also find a filtering menu just above the episode list. Make sure you set it to Filtered By: Unplayed Episodes and you'll be able to only see the ones you haven't watched yet. 

 

Do you mind describing for us what exactly happens when you try downloading via desktop app? We'll be able to take a closer look once we have more info about that. 

 

Hope you'll find this info useful. We'll look out for your reply!


@Ivan wrote:

...

When you click on the blue dot the short summary under the episode's title will expand and you can read the full text. 

...

This is blatantly untrue.  This doesn't explain why there are different stages of the blue dot: none, partial, full.  If it was true, you would only need full or none.  For the record, clicking the title will display the full text.  If you're referring to the length of the title and not the episode summary, that is also untrue since it does not adhere to any form when displaying the blue dot in any of its various stages.

 

As far as I can tell, the blue dot is an alpha feature that does not actually do anything except confuse users.

Filter by unplayed (at the top). The blue dot is pointless and the mod response is just simply, not true.

Thanks for this answer, it rang true in my experience. I was just looking for the meaning behind the blue dots and found this post and your response clarifies. Thanks again! I listen to podcasts on Spotify alot and have been rather confused lately by all the blue dots and half etc. but now it is much easier to navigate through the different features (in the past I didn't know how to bring up the full description of different episodes without doing so on accident!).

Sorry, but you're full of it too.

 

TL;DR - Blue dot does nothing except confuse users.

 

See the image in this post, the blue dot appears in 3 different phases here:  Full, partial, not at all.  What's common among all 3 phases?  The episode description is longer than the preview pane.

 

I've listened to each of these episodes from start to finish, yet the dot appears in all different phases across the board, regardless of the actual status of the podcast.  Take a look at #125 and #126 - both of which I've listened to from start to finish, neither have a dot, one is completely finished while the other remains < 5 min (donor credits).

 

bandwiches_0-1589919824366.png

 

I was wondering this myself. 

 

I found that I tend to listen to an episode up until the last couple minutes because the outro music starts playing. Because of this, a semi-circle shows up with a blue line (where you see how much you've listened to).

To test it, I dragged the player to the very ending second and the semi-circle turned into a full one with a gray line. 

 

Below are some pictures describing it. I don't know about the absent circles. 

 

The blue arrow shows that even if I completed the material, I didn't finish the episode, so there is a semi-circle. You can notice the difference in blue lines. 

I don't know the specific time from the end when the circle turns full from half. 

 

Hope this makes sense and helps!

Screenshot 2021-02-19 133326.png

 

I sincerely watch this post, because it cracks me up that we're still sitting here (literally a year later) and the accepted response is still garbage and via Twitter they said they would answer this and no one has even commented.

Caveat - Spotify did update the blue circle some, it no longer shows as many varying degrees of "full", but it's still an incomplete "beta" feature they won't tell anyone about.

@nicolegeorgek - I agree with everything you said except it doesn't explain why New Episodes and Finished Episodes have the same full-blue state. We can also see the latest playthrough, so we already know it's not finished and there would be no need for a partial state - it's literally right next to it.

We're getting closer! But for now, this is still just a feature meant to confuse users.

Hey folks,

 

Thanks for keeping in touch.

 

The explanation that @nicolegeorgek shared is very good and that's what the blue dots are for and how they work. Apologies if you've found this feature confusing. We appreciate your feedback and we'll make sure to pass it on to the right folks here at Spotify.

 

In the meantime, if you'd like to have a clearer way of visualizing your podcast episodes progress and listening history, or have any thoughts to improve this feature, we encourage you to submit an idea to our ideas board. Others can then vote on it or add to the conversation to show their support. 

You can also read more about how feedback on ideas reaches Spotify here.

 

We hope this helps. If you have any questions or need anything else, we're always a post away.

 

Cheers!

CarlosEModerator
 
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Like.
 

We've come a long way from when the blue dot meant there is an episode description. Thanks everyone!

I just found this thread because I couldn't figure out which episodes of the podcast I had listened to based on the interface.  I would like to suggest that the blue dot not exist at all. The progress bar should be blank if you haven't listened to it and the blue as much as you have listened to it.  Why does it go back to grey after you have listened to it fully??? That makes no sense.

 

I would have posted this onto the suggestion board you suggested, but that also seemed very confusing. I hope others agree with me.  You don't need to have multiple things - just have one visual of how much was listened and do not erase it if you listened to it all the way.  Bright blue bar works great (as long as it doesn't disappear if you finish)

 

p.s. - I am TERRIBLY confused on what I have listened to now that I have learned completed ones are now grey again. Who thought this was a good idea?

 

p.s.s. - Work around! - If you look at the app on your phone vs. your computer, they have text that literally says "played" and a check mark next to each episode you have listened to if you can't stand this blue dot debacle like me.  Cheers!

Cheers @Sunshine21 !

I did end up figuring out how to post the suggestion, so we'll see if it happens!

@nicolegerogek

@CarlosE

 

As originally stated, there's no rhyme or reason to the blue dots.  Below is an image of 3 episodes that I listened to today.

 

#209 - This was a continuation from the other day, it was already 1/4 listened to and I listened all the way to the end and auto-started the next episode (#208 - yes I'm listening in reverse order).

 

#208 - This was 100% new, listened from start to finish (including all the credits).

 

#207 - This was started brand new and I did not finish it.

 

bandwiches_0-1614637780878.png

 

Why are there full dots next to #208 & #209 which were both 100% completed from start to finish?

 

Seems to me that whoever was working on this feature just got up and left the company one day if you ask me.

@plexus

@bandwiches

@jacobttutty

@nicolegeorgek

@carlosE

@Ivan

 

Hi all,

I was just notified that my idea has been marked this as a new suggestion. Spotify Staff will look into this idea once it reaches the necessary amount of votes.

 

More info on how your feedback reaches Spotify via the Idea Exchange can be found here.

 

Please share around all your Spotify-using friends so that we can resolve the blue dot/progress bar confusion!

 

Anyone can cast their vote of support here: 

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Desktop-Podcasts-Eliminate-Blue-Dot-on-Desktop-app-Use-P...

 

Thank you!

Thanks for pointing me to the Filtered By functionality. This helps for my use case, but I agree with the original poster about how annoying it is to have these blue dots. They are very confusing and not useful at all.

For anyone wondering, the blue dot was removed in a recent update from both the mobile app and the desktop app, despite what this moderator/admin stated here: Ideas - Eliminate Blue Dot

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