What's up with this new desktop UI?

[tetre]

Device

PC

Operating System

Windows 10

I don't know where else to post this, but the new desktop UI is terrible. I'm running version 1.2.7.1277.g2b3ce637 and have tried the methods to revert the UI I've found elsewhere in the community (like changing prefs file, which I had to dig for), but none have worked.

The UI is just the complete opposite of what I'd want on desktop- very noncompact, difficult for no reason, and generally looks to be modeled more for phones than for a desktop.

If anyone knows a way to revert the update, please let me know.

[tetre]

Hey folks,

If you need a familiar experience to help you get started with the new Your Library sidebar, here's how to get it as close as possible to the old sidebar that previously only showed playlists:

• In the left "Your Library" sidebar, click on the "Playlists" filter at the top.

• Then, in the sort options drop down menu select "Custom Order". You will then see your previous playlist order and be able to move your playlists and folders like before.

• Your currently chosen filters and sort options will be remembered across restarts of the desktop app.

• If you would like to only see text in the Your Library sidebar (no art covers), go to the Spotify app Settings ➜ Library ➜ and turn on "Use compact library layout".

• Flexible Sizing: You can drag the Your Library sidebar to different sizes. Fully expand the sidebar by clicking the arrow button at the top, and fully collapse the sidebar by clicking on the "Your Library" heading to see only art covers.

• At the top, you can scroll through the different filters with your mouse scroll wheel for faster navigation when the sidebar is set to a smaller size. 

Hopefully this info helps!

Check out my help guide for more help:

Desktop: New Your Library sidebar

[Ned2600]

Hello,

So as the title states, please bring back the old Spotify UI or at least reconsider it!
This morning I got surprised at my work laptop and now aswell for my Desktop PC that the UI got a massive overhaul.

Currently I have some complaints regarding the new UI:

- Album art size cannot be made customized to your liking, right now on my 27 inch 1440p screen the album arts looks ridiculously small. (please see screenshot)

- The UI is very confusing and really trying to push you latest plays or podcasts on the sidebar, instead of your playlists (I know it can be changed, but why all these hoops and loops)

- Some elements of the UI are pitch black, which are sometimes annoying to read (I prefer the old grey tone of Spotify) (please see screenshot)
The latest complaint would be fixed if Themes for Spotify would be implemented!

I'm not sure how much this new UI was tested under the testing team, but please reconsider this UI redesign or do something with some ideas I might have brought up, since I read a lot of backlash on the internet already.
Or just give users the possibility to go back to the old design.

Thanks for reading and I hope you guys make the right decision!

[Bartley2]

Get rid of home page update 

[snakedisorder]

On top of everything else people have mentioned, the album artwork not being able to be adjusted in size and it hovering over everything is the worst decision anyone could have made. It looks so BAD. Let me adjust album artwork again PLEASE!!! 

[AlejaR]

Hey folks,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome.

This seems to be one of the changes we recently made. At Spotify, we're always testing new improvements and features to give our users a better experience. So you may see something your friend can't see, or you may have access to a completely new feature for a while.

Your feedback is very important to us, because it helps us make future decisions. You're welcome to share your comments with us, constructively. We know you want to make the best out of your listening experience. 

We'll be here if anything else comes up. Once again, thanks for the feedback.

[Samsone]

This new UI update got to be the absolute worst update I have seen in all my 10 years of using Spotify, and I'm not exaggerating.

It looks like I'm using spotify on a small phone when I'm using it on my PC. Everything is huge and dumbed down and makes finding content harder and more troublesome. It also tossed up my library and mixed all my playlists(which I sorted myself), and I can't seem to have a single sorting option that fixes this. 

Please give control back to the customer. Let us choose what UI we want or even better, let us customize it. Let us sort our own library like before. I'm tired of being treated like a dumb sheep by huge companies and I just might change my audio platform if this update is not getting radically changed. I will NEVER get used to this and its literally worse UI than spotify 10 years ago.

EDIT: Thought I found a patch solution for my problem since you can customize the order of pinned content but then I get smacked with this:

You can't be for real spotfiy

[Pumpaknugen]

this new desktop UI for windows is absolutely atrocious. the neat thing about having spotify on PC was that it was tidy and organised. this is just about unnavigatable. what is the point?

[psychopcmp]

I'm a very avid Spotify user. I use Spotify in my daily life and have music playing near constantly, so having an app that functions efficiently is very important to me. Following the most recent mobile UI update, I was already distraught. It's difficult to use, shows less content, and an overall eyesore. That being said, I was even more irritated to see the desktop UI being updated as well. I've attached an image below of what I'm currently seeing, which mirrors that of the mobile library. While the library for mobile works perfectly fine, so did the one for desktop. 
Circling back to my point about using Spotify frequently, I have a lot of playlists. I use the playlist folder function to categorize them, and could previously see all folders in the library sidebar. Now, I can only see five blocks of content, which isn't a very helpful change. While I can see that they may want the app to look sleek and smooth, this isn't the way to go about it. Similarly to the mobile UI update, don't fix it if it's not broken. **bleep**, I'd say it borders more on "broken" than before. While it may not have been as defined looking as the mobile library, the desktop library worked perfectly fine and was well-suited for the devices it's used on. 

Wondering if anybody else has gotten this update, and what their thoughts are?

[kaworu_bloodpaw]

Hey @psychopcmp

What Spotify version are you on, and did you get it from the Spotify website or the MS Store? I haven't gotten that change yet.

[Assfujker113]

I just updated today and saw this awful new UI. I can't find anything now. I have been putting off going to Amazon Music but this might be the straw that broke the camels back. PLEASE Spotify give us UI options so we can get rid of this trash.

[vaajy]

I am very neutral towards it, they just need to add Bell icon next to profile picture.

I am tired to look new releases from phone every morning to listen them on COMPUTER!

Bug located too.

When you hoover at your picture, the username goes under top bar.

I like this update, it's average, and it reminds me of the very same view on phone. They just need to keep Tiktok off.

I should use it for a week more to add more feedback.

However, when expanded, it says last listened on playlists. Any other content data row is empty.

Can you add to everything last listened as it could help to find artists or albums not listened for a long time?

Other complaints.

Why we can not pin more than 4 items? Especially on desktop even 8 items could help to find most used items.

Translation error. FI, language.

When you search for something can not be found the keyword is between other words without needed space on both sides.

[ESHLucky13]

Not the OP but I have the desktop program from the Microsoft store. It last updated on 3/16/2023 but there wasn't any big change in the UI for me. I'll avoid updating the desktop version.

[vaajy]

The new look looks basically like this.

New look Windows

There are many opinions about it, and it can be also expanded for more information at Library section.

It can be also turned off when you basically see tiny sidebar with little icons only about the stuff one has here.

Spotify – Windows
1.2.7.1277.g2b3ce637

[kaworu_bloodpaw]

@vaajy

Thanks for the overview! I see your client also has the (+) button now instead of the heart. At least the quick indicator next to the track title is still there.

I'm also on Spotify for Windows 1.2.7.1277.g2b3ce637. I guess this is another one of those tests that slowly rolls out, like the mobile UI. I'll see if I can find anything.

[vaajy]

Hi, the Plus might be because of Podcasts in playing now. I still have hearts on my laptop and phone app.

I honestly hope it stays this way, as Heart is much better. Plus can be added next to it. Many would like it better 🙂

[kaworu_bloodpaw]

@vaajy

I think having both is a great compromise, and there's plenty of room for both on desktop and mobile. Smartwatches will need to be redesigned to fit both, but do that many people use the watch app anyways?

[Vladikot]

I agree, please revert this, or at least give us a switch, button or an ability to edit prefs file again to choose our design preference.

On top of everything else said, left menu now is way too complex and navigation is troublesome.

I preferred more when I had a lot of information on the screen, meaning I had a lot more playlists displayed at a time so I didn't need to scroll to find anything.

Now we have the top mobile-style menu where you have to double-click to swap from playlists to albums: to click the item you are in and then the item where you want to be. Straight clicking your destination (or some other button) just makes it worse by sorting it in a way you don't want.

Also, if you ended up with this design, why are my local files at the top of the playlists section? It's not a playlist, but just a shared folder. Leave it anywhere else but please not on top of the playlist section, especially considering you made all playlist entries extra large, so local files also consume a lot of space.

Why do we need to sort it all like that on PC? We have custom orders to sort it as we want, why did you chose to add this complexity and annoyance?

It may seem miserable at first, like "you can do one click, why don't you do two". But in fact you will use the app for a long time, damn it, I use it mostly the whole day long. And with this much interaction these "2 instead of 1", "scroll to find" makes things extremely unpleasant and annoying. And it feels much worse when you remember, that in the last UI update it was not like this.

[hammedstir]

I absolutely abhor this update. I have a lot of playlists and meticulously organize my music into them. Each playlist in the sidebar taking up a huge chunk of space makes navigating the sidebar an absolute nightmare. I've set my UI to the maximum zoom out setting so that that playlist panels take up as little space as possible, but they're still unbearably large. I really hope Spotify reverts this change or I'll be looking for another music streaming service to use.

Update: the browser UI hasn't updated to the new version yet. Hopefully it stays that way...

[psychopcmp]

1.2.7.1277.g2b3ce637, I don't remember where I'd downloaded it since it's been a while. Chances are, they're rolling it out randomly rather than to everybody at once

[psychopcmp]

Got it earlier! Very frustrated considering Spotify seems to keep cranking out poor design choices this week lol. I liked the old interface much better, especially with the library. I've been using Spotify for years and I have nearly 300 playlists. I use the playlist folders, but it's still a lot. With the previous layout, I could see almost every folder easily with minimal scrolling. Adding the mobile library to the desktop version is irritating to navigate and overall ineffective. The previous version worked perfectly well, why fix it if it's not broken?
There's also the issue of adjusting the size of the panel. Previously, you had more liberty to adjust it. Now it's either default, larger, or small icons (which still don't show very much content in contrast to before). I wish Spotify would stop rolling out pointless redesigns lol