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

[tgerhardt1]

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!!

[pjmohr33]

And when we say bring back the old version, we mean the exact old version.

I used the qr code thing all the time for road trips to easily share music with my friends in the vehicle.

The new thing disconnects everyone, removes the queue and plays on their phones too. No one likes it 

Go back to the shared qr code please.

[Dylanica]

I can’t understand how the Spotify design team completely forgot about cars and road trips. This was the best part of this feature. 

It seems particularly difficult to get Spotify support to understand that, most of the time you want to use a shared queue, you don’t have access to wifi or you don’t have a smart speaker.

Please bring everything about how it used  to work back: the code scanning to the ability, do it without wifi, chose which deceives you do and don’t want to play on. The new changes make no sense.

Spotify seems more keen on making changes to their app than making changes people want. Most people seem to dislike how this feature works now, but there’s been no talk of changing it back. I just want to hear that it will

he changed.

[Stiner02]

I hate new sessions. Bring back old one 

[PlatinumMillz]

I managed to find a way to force this on Bluetooth devices. On iOS if you go to Bluetooth settings and rename your car’s Bluetooth to start with something like “JBL Charge …” it will think it’s a speaker and you’ll be able to invite people to a session and add music to play on one device.

Still, I think there should be a switch for the host to have it play on one device or everyone’s. 

[rikupeltola]

Any updates soon? Would love to get the old group session back. I used it always when I was with my friends and it was the best feature in Spotify. What was the point in removing the only function that made it great?

Just enable listening with same device without having to have a WiFi connection and smart speakers. Or at least tell us if you are not going to make it good again, so that we dont need to keep waiting for it forever.

[louisawesome1]

It’s 2023 and we still want the old version. Spotify dev team please acknowledge this issue.Music is meant to be social.

[arkanesky]

The feature is definitively broken. A unique addition that made Spotify stand out was put into the digital wood chipper and paying users have had literally nothing but "we can't replicate the issue!" or bumbling silence as a response. It's extremely simple:

- A feature used to exist where a host playing music over a speaker could press 1-2 buttons to generate a link or code for a session.

- Friends could click the link or scan the code to join.

- All participants could now add songs to the single queue for the single speaker.

That's it! As it currently stands, a phone connected to a bluetooth speaker maybe, under certain extraordinarily rare circumstances and only during full lunar eclipses, will see the fabled slider that says "multiple people can join and control this speaker." And if you were an extra good lad this year then you'll be gifted shared access if you happen to be on the same WiFi network. Which was never necessary with the old version, by the way, so the single-digit percentage of the time that it does work "as intended" is a titanic embarrassment compared to the simple, effective, and reliable old version.

Spotify, why must you break your own best features, and then fumble aimlessly in a half-hearted attempt to bandage it? What additional functionality have you added since the update that annihilated the original shared sessions that makes this tradeoff at all worthwhile?

Listen, I'm only **bleep** off because we really loved this feature, and I raved about it to others. It was great. You did an excellent job! And now you've gone and **bleep** your own pants, and instead of just getting a change of clothing, you're walking around the venue spilling water and soda on it repeatedly, desperately trying to convince everyone at the party that you did NOT, in fact, **bleep** in your pants.

Please fix it. Just roll it back. You have over 5,000 employees. There has to be at least one person who can either fix it, or explain to people why the feature hasn't been reinstated in its original form.

[MihailY]

Updated on 2023-01-28

Hey folks,

Thanks for coming to the Spotify Idea Exchange and voting to make this happen.

We're happy to announce that Group session on speaker is now available on Android and iOS. There's more info here.

Once again, thanks for helping us make Spotify better, by participating here on the Community.

[roel]

Contrairy to the info on the page mentioned as solution, our request is about a solution WITHOUT wifi involved.

As the scenario 'in the car' means there's no wifi

[louisawesome1]

This is absurd & surely must be a mistake, more than 1 thousand people have been awaiting an answer for almost a full year only for the suggestion to be WRONGLY marked as implemented. We DO NOT want the existing group sessions on “smart speakers and most Bluetooth speakers”, that’s already what we have, we want back the OLD group sessions where users can add to the queue on ANY device, for example, the feature as is right now doesn’t even work on roadtrips since most newer cars use Carplay & Android Auto. This is not what was requested & frankly it’s beginning to be extremely frustrating having this issue fall on deaf ears, specially when it existed before. I won’t give up even if I have to go to Daniel Ek myself.