[Android] Android Widget

[nicb19]

Having a home screen widget for Android would be really nice. All other media players have one on Android so it'd be great to see that in Spotify too. It'd make things so much easier to just be able control to Spotify from your home screen instead of swiping down for the notification bar or opening the app. It's really simple functionality so please can you add it.

[naujramirez]

This is nonsense. Why would you remove something that worked so well? Something that was so convenient for your users? A reason why I  love Android phones is because of its widgets. Why would you remove the Spotify widgets? Apple, Google, Tidal, and Amazon still have their widgets. I think I'll start exploring other music streaming services.

[LionFreak]

Wow...everyone is super **bleep** Spotify takes away the ability to use a widget and they reply today basically telling customers too bad they don't care..wow..

Blow up Twitter and Facebook #spotifysucks

[VillemTer]

The widget was pretty much my only way of accessing the app.

There were no warnings about removing this feature. Nor were there any proper explanations as to why an optional feature was removed. At least give us a viable alternative after removing what is in my opinion the most user friendly feature of the entire platform. If its not back by the next update im ending my three year old subscription.

[Dee2896]

How many votes does this thing require before you consider bringing it back? Who's idea was it to remove the widget and why? What was the reasoning behind it? Does any one of the Spotify employees even use Spotify? I think they don't because they won't even raise the song cap from 10,000.

[Palms561]

Horribly handled decision to remove the widget. I am beyond **bleep** that I can't get it back. The option of it being in the notification bar is just a bad excuse for lazy programming. 

[Marieeeka]

If this isn't returned I'm leaving Spotify. I've been a long time paying customer since Spotify was in beta ,but the blatant disregard of the consumers' demand to return this feature is extremely disappointing. I've already been thoroughly annoyed today everytime I go to push my Spotify widget and it's gone. I, like many other users here, will look to cancel my membership for my entire family if this feature isnt returned. The fact that your team is so out of touch with what the consumers' want, even with this whole community site here giving you the feedback to make this decision a no-brainer, is really baffling. Even a little bit of pre-market research would've warned you of the backlash you would provoke by removing this feature. The iPhone is losing market share to Android so catering to them or designing for that OS doesn't make long term sense. Really, really disappointed!!

[magnamundian]

What stupid **bleep** decided to pull a valuable feature without notification.

[duncan_bayne]

Yup, I'm now 100% convinced that this is an ad revenue play.  (Original article here).

#spotify, advertising, and The Widget

A small - but very vocal - minority of Spotify users are currently up in arms about Spotify's decision to drop their Android widget. A lot of the complaints are in the form of a question: infuriated users are asking why Spotify would choose to regress the functionality their product.

I think I have the answer: advertising revenue.

Spotify has started serving advertisements to paying customers of late. Sure, that's not what they call it. A Spotify rep told me:

An "advert" promotes products and services from mostly an outside party in an attempt to build their own customer bases. An "announcement", on the other hand, provides recommendation to contents already available thru Spotify ... we also help the industry by allowing them to promote their contents via our platforms.

So, they're not ads because Spotify says they're not ads. Paid promotions aren't ads. They're announcements. Gotcha. Right.

With the ads in mind, Spotify's decision to remove the widget makes perfect sense. Without the widget, I need to open their app to start playing my music. So now, I can't launch music without being exposed to ads (sorry, 'announcements').

As I told the Spotify rep in my reply:

I also think you're aware of how this will be perceived, hence the "announcement" weasel-word to describe that advertising. If you weren't self-conscious about the perception of serving ads to Premium subscribers, it would never occur to you to use that terminology. I can almost imagine the brain-storming session with legal and product managers sat in front of a whiteboard, trying to come up with a 'more acceptable' term for banner ads.

I have to admit that I'm embarrassed that I didn't anticipate the next step: nerfing the Spotify UX to ensure that customers are forced to view the ads, including those who are paying to, supposedly, enjoy an ad-free experience.

Not cool, Spotify.

[Brando909]

Just why?

It's been a day and this is only going to get worse. I have been watching the votes grow more and more by the minute. If this goes viral which I hope it does will really affect your over all business image.  

Spotify have not even given the community a reason as to why it's removed it. Your explanation of it retiring then to be redirected to a webpage that we are told will explain why things are changing is absolute garbage. Where is the reason? 

Just Bring it back. 

Announcement:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Android-Widget-Removal/td-p/4800301/page/53

Spotifys response to change:

https://support.spotify.com/au/using_spotify/system_settings/why-am-i-seeing-different-features-than...

[jin7god]

I've been a premium account user for 6 years and I have used the widget everyday since. Removing it just makes your app worse it's an option to use it in the first place. What benefit does this bring to community? Terrible decision by someone who thinks they are a know it all. Not happy...