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[Mobile] Please bring back the old group session. "Play from same device"

The old group session, "play from same device option" has been removed and it has saddened many people. It seems the only group session option is now remote group sessions, where the music is played on each individual device.

 

This group session, "play from same device" feature was personally one of my favorite features of Spotify. When it was first introduced, I quite literally showed all of my friends to use it. I understand it was in beta, but this feature was used by many people, quite literally all the time. We know this feature did not work perfectly, but we would use it regardless of the tiny flaws, it was honestly my favorite thing about Spotify.

 

Whenever I, or any group, would have friends over, I would always offer to start a group session so that everyone could contribute to the music being played. Having this option, friends could seamlessly contribute to the music being played so that one person would not selfishly play music the entire time. It was so fun having everyone able to contribute, without having to hand over the one single phone to everyone that was connected to the device, just to add a few songs to the queue. Having someone scan a code and then instantly able to add songs to the queue was a perfect idea for hanging out with friends, in person.

 

It appears with the new update, there is only an option for remote group sessions where the music is played on each individual device, I'm asking to consider bringing back the "play from same device."

 

To recap, this feature allowed people to share music during in-person hang sessions, and from the people I had introduced to it, all found it to be one of the most fun features of Spotify.

 

So, dear Spotify, please bring back this feature!

 

Thanks,

Troy and many others!!

Updated on 2023-12-22

Hey folks,

Thank you for all the support! 

We're happy to announce that the 'Play from the same device' feature is now officially back!
Changing the status here to Implemented 🙂 

Comments
kmetoxen

Please bring this feature back!! My boyfriend and I used this feature constantly when we’re in the car so I can add songs to the queue. The new feature doesn’t allow me to do this without it playing on both of phones which is so unintuitive. 

ankhurth

I don’t habe wifi at home since we mostly spend the day working and our data plans are everything we need for the moment. Having to share my mobile’s hotspot just for being able to control the music remotely is now a pain. We used to generate the spotify code and scan it on the other device, then we could listen to out music doing our daily stuff. Now that’s been taken away from us and we don’t like it at all. It was so easy and convenient. We actually recommended Spotify to others for this feature, but it’s gone 😞

CutthroatFinch

Absolutely terrible change. I used the old version of this feature regularly for parties, road trips, barbecues, etc and it was fantastic. I can’t even begin to fathom why the developers  would think anyone would prefer the new version. Please fix this. 

jaydcarlson

I have a computer hooked up to my speakers — I do not have a "Spotify Connect Speaker." The old group session allowed my friends and I to get together, listen to music, and share a queue. It was absolutely awesome, and helped convince my non-Spotify friends to sign up. All that has changed with the latest update; the feature is totally broken. I'm not sure how to duplicate this capability; Spotify needs to bring this back!

Cilibert

One of the only reasons I keep paying for spotify (versus other competing services) was the group queue feature. How can we be this many decades into digital music and one of the leading platforms deletes the in person shared music experience for a remote shared music experience. Why can't we have both Spotify? Put it back the way it was or just give the new thing a new name and offer both. 

roflcopter1337

This was the best feature of spotify, now its crippled

koopatroopa120

Please bring this back. The feature to share control of a smart speaker is a nice addition, but NOT a replacement. I want to be able to share control of a single phone playing music places where smart speakers do NOT work, like the car. Please make two options when joining a shared session: join as a “controller” (the lost feature that was disabled) or as a “listener” (the remote group feature as it is now).

Likou

Scanning the phone of your friend to control the music was such a good feature please bring it back it was so good and useful.

Likou

Scanning a code was such a wonderful Idea. 

RedMyCraft

I don't understand how this feature was still in beta ! Everytime i saw the "beta" text on the app I laughed and showed it to my friends while telling them : "Haha lol, they say it's still in beta". I use it since it came out and it worked perfectly fine everytime ! 

Yes, somtimes, someone was kicked out of the session when he closes the app but it took him a few seconds (scanning a barcode) to join it back. But, in the past two weeks, I've never been so frustrated due to this feature. I've had to use it several times at parties with friends, it did not work at ALL.

 

First, why to get rid of the code scanning system ???? Using links that needs to be shared on messaging groups is just anoying, it's really doing a step backwards to what was existing and working. Why do you need to use an alternative app to share a stupid link to join a Spotify session (when before it was supported by the app itself). I've still not being able to join a session on the first try or most of the time at all during a party, netiher do my friends. I'm not even going to tell about the disconnection who are far more common than before even when the app is always active.

Second, why when we succeed, after many tries, to join the session is the music also playing on our phone ? Now, when i'm partying I've no choise either I give my phone password to eveyone or leave it unlocked. It's really not a great experience. I can't believe how this feature has been accepted from a UX perspective.

How can this feature working amazingly well in beta can be so frustrating and NOT WORKING in release.

Please explain how a 20 line help page (group session - spotify on Jan 16th) can become a 50 line long today help page ? Isn't it obvious that since the "update" (more a downgrade in my case) this feature is less intuitive, is less reliable and is not fun to use because of all the problem/bugs surrounding it. 

 

So please do a roll-back commit because the new system is really really bad and everybody hates it.