RETURN THE LIKE BUTTON

[juzh]

I don't care if this has been submitted a hundred times over, you Spotify devs clearly need to hear it. You should *not* have to go through the effort of finding the "liked songs" playlist, just to add a song to Liked, when you have a ton of playlists. Playlists don't even sort like they used to, it seems almost random which playlists show first despite which ones I interacted with last - but that's not the issue here; it's just yet another downside of the problem at hand.

Please. Please. Please.

Bring back the **bleep** 'liked'/heart button on songs and albums. Having to add liked songs to my liked playlist manually just leads to me adding it to different playlists because it's so **bleep** tedious in the first place. I've been adding songs to playlists and then using the PC version to mass-add songs to Liked because you make it so inconvenient on mobile. This isn't user-friendly in the slightest.

Just, why? Why can't you just bring back the little heart? I thought the point of liked songs was to add songs then and there; not to have to stop in the street to add a song to a playlist because it now takes several seconds to do so. I've been paying for Premium since 2009, and now I'm wondering if you're worth the effort. Fire whoever told you it was a good idea to remove the Liked button, seriously. Fire yourselves for listening, too.

[j-e]

this resonate so much to me ... i'm avoiding using the green mark unless it's critical.

bring it back!

[j-e]

voted!

you can also add feedback to https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Bring-back-the-heart-button/idc-p/5974832#M285782

[bolfh]

Until recently I used the web player as workaround to see the hearts

Now Spotify has switched the web player to the checkmarks (removed the hearts) as well, even though this thread is labeled "Good Suggestion".

Are they kidding us?

[dalbus]

Damn it, it was back for a few days. It worked great. I clicked the heart and in one click the song went into my liked songs, then a few days later, the like button is gone again. Why??? Just leave it there. I am not inherently against change. If you have an idea and it's a good idea that makes using the app easier, then please go ahead and do it. This change actively makes Spotify worse. So why are you changing it? Please bring it back. Please for the love of god. 

[vinskeet]

Yes! Bring it back!

I use it to sort my favorites in my playlists for when I create my DJ sets!! Please bring it back 🙂

[yidamala]

A SUGGESTED BEHAVIOUR FOR THE LIKED/PLAYLIST ISSUE HERE

I hope this might address most of the issues people have raised - I haven't read all the comments, just thought about my own experience.

I only just noticed the Liked/Playlist change, apparently because it was only recently made to the web player, even though it has been in the pipeline for some time now. I use the Android app too but generally I only update apps manually once in a while.

I had written a long answer already based on the behaviour in the web player, but to be sure I thought I'd check what the Android app does now so I updated it, and I also ended up looking at some different scenarios so I've had to rewrite a little (and I hope it's worthwhile because it has taken quite some time)

This issue is called "Return the Like Button", but maybe it should be "Bring Back the Green Heart and be properly sensitive to context!", because:

• It seems that for many (most?) people the big issue is that you can no longer distinguish a Liked track from one which is in a regular playlist - and also for me that's the main problem.
• The behaviour isn't sensitive (enough) to context

Personally, I have mixed feelings about the change overall, for the following reasons:

• (-) A bug? When you're in one of your playlists (on web player and presumably computer app too?) the button which shows up on mouse-over of a track can be either Add to Liked or Add to Playlist and when I click it I can't see why there should be a difference; both sort of tracks are in the current playlist and nothing else...
• (-) You can't easily tell whether you've liked something as opposed to put it in a regular playlist (or if it's both)
• (?) It's still just as easy to add to Liked Songs... so long as the track isn't already in one of your playlists
• (-) Removing a track from Liked Songs now takes 3 clicks instead of one (in web interface anyway, looks like that's the case on mobile too).
• (+) Adding something to a playlist is now a little easier than going to the add-to-playlist option via "..." on the track list, and much easier if it's already Liked/in a playlist.
• (+) You can remove the currently playing track from any playlist it's in, including the one you're currently listening to, very easily. Until now I have maintained a "remove from playlists" playlist so I can deal with that in batches, because even if you were playing the playlist a track was in, you had to actually find it in the playlist in order to remove it. Removing from all playlists (something I once asked for) is also made easy by the "Clear All" button

If we look closely we can see that there are really two issues here:

• What that icon (in whichever state) reflects
• What clicking on it does

I think that the following might be a good compromise. It's based on the web player (and computer app?) format, but might be somewhat relevant to mobile apps too.

• The click action should continue to behave as it does now, i.e. according to the action offered in the status display...
  • If Add to Liked, a click would add it to Liked (and offer "Change" to go to the selection display)
  • otherwise, a click would take you to the new playlist selection display, without changing anything
• The status display/offered action needs enhancement:
  • The heart DISPLAY should be restored with the behaviour it had before - if a track is in Liked, show a heart. (Action: Add to Playlist)
  • If a track is in Liked and also in another playlist, show the heart, but with a checkmark in it. (Action: Add to Playlist, but named Playlists - Add/Remove)
  • If a track is not Liked but is in a playlist, show the check. The only place the check should be suppressed is when showing the user's playlists and the track is ONLY in the playlist displayed (so you can tell if it's in another playlist too). (Action: Add to Playlist, but named Playlists - Add/Remove) [EDITED TO ADD: Since currently the icon is shown on mouse-over, in such a case the icon shouldn't be the green check as that would be confusing - a green check says "in another playlist". Instead, show a check mark icon but in white - sort of like the plus - rather than green. Would be great if in the player it would work the same way; white check if only in the current (playing) playlist, otherwise green check+/heart, or plus, as appropriate]
  • If a track is not Liked and not in a playlist, show the plus, or maybe the previous white heart outline (Action: Add to Liked Songs)
• Basically, once a track is in a playlist, Liked is treated like any playlist, but if a track is not in any playlist, the default destination is Liked

[03-ckyvl_ivh5]

Everything correct, Spotify. Not only do you eliminate features that no one asks to eliminate, for example hearts, you ignore the opinion of your users, and you also increase the price. It is a price in HIFI, something that your sound does not have. We take note.

[shape5]

I’ve also been a premium user for about a decade.  This new change makes anything involving likes so much more time-consuming, confusing, and frustrating.

Removing features almost always causes problems for the users who depend on them.  At the very least, add a preference to enable/disable the feature rather than remove it, so that those who use the feature can still enable it if Spotify for whatever reason no longer recognizes its usefulness.

Firstly, there are discrepancies w/ this feature (and others too) between the iPhone and Mac desktop apps, when functionality and layout between all platforms should be consistent with each other in order to maximize universality/usability.  

On both the mobile and desktop app, you can no longer tell which songs in a playlist are liked without another few steps: tapping the “add to playlist” option to see whether they’re in Liked Songs (3 steps on mobile!) or clicking on the song menu icons (desktop), since all the non-liked songs are also checkmarked on both platforms (confusing enough?).  Obviously, this backwards process is completely ridiculous and nonsensical b/c it requires extra convoluted steps (rather than 0 steps before) to simply view an icon which you’d normally be able to see next to every song.  So now, rather than being able to see in a few seconds which songs out of potentially hundreds (or thousands) in a playlist are liked, you have to click on each individual song’s menu (desktop) or tap 2-3 other options (mobile), which nobody would even bother doing for this many.  Plus, you can’t remember which ones are liked or not liked if the icons are hidden from plain sight.  The checkmark is also very confusing b/c you can’t tell if it means the song is liked or just added to a playlist, since it represents both.

The “like” and “add to playlist” functions and icons also need to be independent of each other, b/c not all songs you add to playlists are necessarily ones you also want to heart.  This makes the “like” option pointless and unnecessary if every song added to a playlist is also liked.

To make this ideal for all users would be to add a preference to show/hide these 2 separate icons: one for likes, and another for playlists.  Both should be enabled by default, and when disabled would exist in the drop-down menu only.  Both of these are needed for the large majority of users, they often do not overlap, and should appear next to each other by every song in all playlists and albums, and be visible at all times, like the heart icon used to.  Likes should then be removed from the drop-down menu when enabled, since this is redundant.

Also be sure to vote for these ideas below which address the same issue, although they should all be consolidated into the same Idea.  The total vote count for all 5 Ideas is now 4,175!!  In addition to this are 55 pgs of negative feedback in the official announcement.  Talk about blatantly ignoring user requests and preferences.

Bring back the heart button! - The Spotify Community

[Mobile][Browse] Bring back like indicator on album/playlist - The Spotify Community

[Mobile] Change like button back to a heart but keep the + button too - The Spotify Community 

New "likes" system is a mess - The Spotify Community

And this is the official announcement page for this utter feature catastrophe which states: “The best way to share your feedback is to comment here in this thread.”

The ♡ Heart button is being replaced with a (+) Plus button - The Spotify Community

I highly recommend also voting for this new feature to improve the checkmark icon.  This can still be used in conjunction w/ the heart icon:

Additional Green Checkmark for Same Song on OTHER ... - The Spotify Community

[shape5]

I’ve also been a premium user for about a decade.  This new change makes anything involving likes so much more time-consuming, confusing, and frustrating.

Removing features almost always causes problems for the users who depend on them.  At the very least, add a preference to enable/disable the feature rather than remove it, so that those who use the feature can still enable it if Spotify for whatever reason no longer recognizes its usefulness.

Firstly, there are discrepancies w/ this feature (and others too) between the iPhone and Mac desktop apps, when functionality and layout between all platforms should be consistent with each other in order to maximize universality/usability.  

On both the mobile and desktop app, you can no longer tell which songs in a playlist are liked without another few steps: tapping the “add to playlist” option to see whether they’re in Liked Songs (3 steps on mobile!) or clicking on the song menu icons (desktop), since all the non-liked songs are also checkmarked on both platforms (confusing enough?).  Obviously, this backwards process is completely ridiculous and nonsensical b/c it requires extra convoluted steps (rather than 0 steps before) to simply view an icon which you’d normally be able to see next to every song.  So now, rather than being able to see in a few seconds which songs out of potentially hundreds (or thousands) in a playlist are liked, you have to click on each individual song’s menu (desktop) or tap 2-3 other options (mobile), which nobody would even bother doing for this many.  Plus, you can’t remember which ones are liked or not liked if the icons are hidden from plain sight.  The checkmark is also very confusing b/c you can’t tell if it means the song is liked or just added to a playlist, since it represents both.

The “like” and “add to playlist” functions and icons also need to be independent of each other, b/c not all songs you add to playlists are necessarily ones you also want to heart.  This makes the “like” option pointless and unnecessary if every song added to a playlist is also liked.

To make this ideal for all users would be to add a preference to show/hide these 2 separate icons: one for likes, and another for playlists.  Both should be enabled by default, and when disabled would exist in the drop-down menu only.  Both of these are needed for the large majority of users, they often do not overlap, and should appear next to each other by every song in all playlists and albums, and be visible at all times, like the heart icon used to.  Likes should then be removed from the drop-down menu when enabled, since this is redundant.

Also be sure to vote for these ideas below which address the same issue, although they should all be consolidated into the same Idea.  The total vote count for all 5 Ideas is now 4,175!!  In addition to this are 55 pgs of negative feedback in the official announcement.  Talk about blatantly ignoring user requests and preferences.

[Mobile][Browse] Bring back like indicator on album/playlist - The Spotify Community

[Mobile] Change like button back to a heart but keep the + button too - The Spotify Community 

New "likes" system is a mess - The Spotify Community

RETURN THE LIKE BUTTON - The Spotify Community

And this is the official announcement page for this utter feature catastrophe which states: “The best way to share your feedback is to comment here in this thread.”

The ♡ Heart button is being replaced with a (+) Plus button - The Spotify Community

I highly recommend also voting for this new feature to improve the checkmark icon.  This can still be used in conjunction w/ the heart icon:

Additional Green Checkmark for Same Song on OTHER ... - The Spotify Community

[thetinabear]

I love the button to add to playlist easily and the update where we can add to several playlists at once - there was a brief time recently where the playlists a song was already on would appear at the top, please bring back and cement that feature! I hear that many people preferred the like button simplicity. If it's possible to have the heart for likes next to a plus sign for playlist adds that sounds ideal perhaps.

Wasn't it one tap to like and a second tap to add to playlists at one point? That seemed best honestly.