New Desktop Experience - your feedback wanted!

[Hubo]

Spotify is testing a new way for you to connect with your music on Desktop. The new desktop experience features an all-new design, streamlined with the Spotify apps on all your devices. 

This is a brand-new experience and some parts are still being fine-tuned. Be sure to give feedback with the steps below to let the right folks know what you think could be improved.

The other Rock Stars and I got the chance to test the new desktop experience first and now more users will be able to test it out and give their feedback for the team. If you are a passionate Spotify user and would like to join the Rock Star Program and be part of cool experiences like this, then check out this help article.

How do I know if I’m using the New Desktop Experience?

The new desktop experience is not hard to spot with its new design! Your Library looks like this for example:

 

Why did the app change? 

This test is rolled out to a specific group of users at this moment. It’s not possible to sign up for this right now, but your interest is really appreciated. If you’re interested in testing out new versions of Spotify before everyone else, check this out: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Answers/How-do-I-become-a-Spotify-Beta-tester/ta-p/4551518. 

If you’re looking for more information about how tests work and about how features are released, take a look here: https://support.spotify.com/article/why-am-i-seeing-different-features-than-my-friends/.

How to give feedback?

This thread is your go-to destination for asking questions, getting help for issues you may have, as well as to share your impressions and feedback on this new desktop experience. 

Keep in mind that pictures can say a thousand words, so if you have any screenshots of something you’d like to share of your experience be sure to post them here as well! The right teams at Spotify take their time to read the posts in this thread and use your feedback to fine-tune this new experience for everyone.

[combolito2]

Yo.

When I select more than one song and drag them to my "Liked Songs" only the first song in the list gets hearted. So I have to click each song, one by one. This clearly must be a bug.

[user-removed]

I really do not like this new look. It has a lack of features, and the old one looks much better. I would go back to the old one if I had the chance. I loved the way the old album covers were displayed, the new ones look worse. This new version honestly looks older and it is a total downgrade. Allso I don't have the discover weekly tab that is showed on the screenshot, so this version seems pretty bugged. The people who want to test this new spotify should be able to choose for themselves. Don't pick random people to test this. I wish my spotify to be reverted back to the old one, if that is possible.

[terioncalling]

Hey, guys, it's been over a month since you last gave us an update on what's going on with this cluster of a forced beta test. Can we get some kind of update on what's going on?

[BecauseWhyNot]

Hi everyone,

After many posts here (initially constructive and listing things that needed to or should be remedied, but then becoming more annoyed...) and hearing absolutely nothing back in return I ended up talking to customer service directly and asking to be removed from this so-called beta test group. 

They couldn't do that, but I was able to close my account and create a new one and have my playlists copied over for me (which I did). 

I lost some history for the AI to work with, but I regained so much peach of mind!

The old version is SO MUCH BETTER!!!

So posting this here for anyone using Mac computers who can't find a rollback fix that works permanently (or anyone else who might find it useful).

To Spotify: if you roll out this supposed beta to all users (i.e. if I get it again), I will absolutely cancel my subscription.  It's really disrespectful the way you are treating this group here who have been lumped with the "beta".  Please give them an opportunity to get the old one back and give all of us the idea that you listen to us and respect us by communicating please?

Thanks

[user-removed]

It is really weird, because i am a Spotify user for a LONG time... I am a Alpha tester on Android... So it's weird that i don't get this new version on Windows 10

[terioncalling]

@DamianHabraken

I'm neither an Alpha tester nor a Beta tester yet somehow I ended up with it. Apparently, being in testing doesn't mean much.

[BecauseWhyNot]

@DamianHabraken

Like @terioncalling, I never volunteered to be used as a guinea pig either. It was forced on my (and others here) accounts without our consent, without any communication of the fact, without an end date, and then without anything except the pinned comments on this thread (a thread we all found by googling!) and silence the remainder of the time. I was personally given the so-called beta (read: glitchy alpha) way back in November but got to the point where it was just making my blood boil on a daily basis, forcing me to find my own workaround for the moment. I sincerely hope you never have to deal with the piece of s*@%# version everyone here has been contending with in the future and that Spotify actually hears what we have all been saying and takes it on board.

[edit: typos]

[combolito2]

I have had to put up with an inferior product experience for 2 months now.

The previous version worked so much better in so many ways.

Could you please put me back on the previous version?

I beg you!!!

[bobrosoft]

So damn hate this new UI.......... 

Most disappointing things:

 - no direct "Recently played" link anymore
 - can't delete things from "Recently played" list anymore

 - UI is too big now (ok, I can press CMD + "–"  but still)

One positive thing: looks as "Recently played" now returns more items than before, as in web version now. I wish that list could scroll indefinitely one day (to see all your prev listenings).

PS: I have old Spotify version (1.1.34.694) backed up in parallel but looks as it uses same Web-piece for main content, but playing with that I was able to switch to old layout somehow several times, dunno how to reproduce normally

 

.

[rednblu]

History!  History!

All over again!  And again!

[MateusM]

Hey! Thank you for keeping improving the Desktop app!

The new UI is so much better, clean, and easy to use!
The old one sucks. It's slow and ugly compared to the new one.

I'm looking forward to getting the Group Session feature on Desktop too. 👀

Thank you and keep up the good work.

[user-removed]

How do you have access to the new UI?

[terioncalling]

Found a new issue.

If you play a podcast from the desktop app, it does not go to the next episode in the order but will instead skip to a different episode. However, if I start it playing the podcast from my phone and send it to my pc, it will play in the proper order.

Not only did y'all take away sorting from podcasts on desktop (I'm still not sure what you were thinking on that one and why some people on this forum are acting like it was never there and needs to be suggested to add it back) but they don't even have the capability to play properly now. But I guess that makes sense given the issue currently ongoing with albums playing in the album order in playlists instead of the playlist order.

[user-removed]

Yo, that's really weird...

Spotify is just testing some things out ... On a small group of users...

But it is really stupid that there is no communication before things are going to happen! They just doing things and that is really annoying...

They have a beta or Alpha testing group on Android and iOS, so why on earth doesn't exist that for Windows (PC) users... That doesn't make any sense at all!

[user-removed]

EXACTLY

[qwertyyy]

My old large playlists don't have the duplicate song pop-up after the UI update. 

[MateusM]

The duplicate song pop-up should be fixed soon on the desktop, cause the web version is already fixed.

[qwertyyy]

Thanks for fast response. It has been tough times to search every song I add to playlists in case of duplicate songs. Hopefully this comes asap.

[terioncalling]

Well, I just had a reply of mine with an issue get marked as spam for some reason. Guess I'll repost it with just the issue to see if my extra commentary on it was the problem. (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now my reply that had been removed is back)

-------

Found a new issue.

If you play a podcast from the desktop app, it does not go to the next episode in the order but will instead skip to a different episode. However, if I start it playing the podcast from my phone and send it to my pc, it will play in the proper order.

[formerfatboys]

Deleting the Browse section is embarrassing.
The biggest loss is New Releases.
Why in the world would you remove that?
There should be a FRONTPAGE or DISCOVER or NEW RELEASES tab besides HOME, SEARCH, and YOUR LIBRARY.

We should see all the major New Releases there but also all the new releases from the artists we follow. Duh.

That section should include:
Discover Weekly
Release Radar
New Music Friday
Top Tracks US
Top Tracks Global
Genre Charts

Those are all new music based things that essentially would make up the homepage of the iTunes Store back in the day so why aren't they ANYWHERE in this redesign.
Please let me roll back. With how horribly you handle the Android app I'm about done with Spotify.