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[iOS] Apple Watch: Spotify Streaming and Offline Listening

Submitted by on ‎2018-09-28 06:50 PM
Status: Implemented

Apple Watch: Offline Listening

 

watchOS 5 should allow Spotify to develop an app that allows offline listening and streaming via cellular data.

 

Vote here to show your support for this development!

Updated on 2021-07-20

Hey everyone,

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

Тhis has been one of our most upvoted ideas and we've known it's something that our users would really like to see come true. We're happy to announce that this feature will now become available for the Apple Watch Series 3 or later.


It will be gradually rolled out, so it might take a bit until everybody has access to it.  That being said, we'd like to let you know that the roll-out rate has increased a lot in the last weeks, so if you haven't received the feature in the past, try reinstalling the app on your watch again and there's a big chance you'll get Offline listening now.

Once again, thanks for helping us make Spotify better and voting to make this happen, here on the Community.

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Comments
andremarc
Casual Listener
2020-07-01 12:26 AM

Still absolutely crazy that Spotify have not added this feature. 

 

Just wanted to mention yet another service that has added standalone Apple Watch functionality - that is an app called Pocket Casts. I love Pocket Casts, and I highly recommend you take a look if you're into podcasting. Their app is only $10 per year.

 

For context, the Pocket Casts team is from Adelaide, a city in my native homeland of Australia. Adelaide is one of our smaller cities, with a population of around 1.3 million. This comparitively tiny dev team has been able to implement something that Spotify - the worlds leading music provider - has either been unable or unwilling to implement.

 

Well done Pocket Casts crew. For shame Spotify, for shame.

saintscar
Newbie
2020-07-01 12:40 AM

My bet is - neither they are unable, nor unwilling - It’s just Samsung bent them over after the “partnership” and commanded to provide just enough functionality on Apple devices to not make it look like what it is.

 

I also realized that the UI is getting worse more and more compared to the Android App (I use both a Galaxy Note 10 and an IPhone XS).
Like useful elements are moved to sub-menus, where they are presented prominently in the Android App (like “dislike” a song, where you have to open the 3dot-menu first to do that, which is just an unnecessary stretch to the top of your phone”).

Or like when playing my playlist’s “radio”, being able to dislike songs to fine-tune it to my likings - that disappeared completely from my iOS app, I can’t dislike songs in my playlist’s radio at all anymore.

Or like replacing meaningful big shuffle buttons by tiny buttons you can barely find in the UI.

 

Stuff like that. The Android Apps feels a lot more intuitive to use by now.

I don’t want to raise a conspiracy, but that is what it looks like today 😎

0 Likes
mseiter
Newbie
2020-07-02 12:50 AM

Found an interesting article which explains the Problem and why we could see streaming and offline playback with watchOS 7.
However, if that's what Spotify is/was holding back, there is no excuse why they did not told their customers.

That's the main thing that pisses me off in this whole topic, the inability of this company to communicate reasonably.

https://www.idropnews.com/news/heres-why-spotify-has-been-limited-on-the-apple-watch-but-watchos-7-w...

Bardo
Newbie
2020-07-02 01:42 AM

Thanks for sharing this article. This kind of ties it all together.

0 Likes
krispy4
Newbie
2020-07-02 11:02 AM

Good article and it does soften my stance a little.

But I'm wondering if we're making assumptions in sympathy of Spotify? Knowing full well about Spotify's negative stance toward Apple, if this were the case then surely they would have publicized this front and centre? They could have even run a smear campaign showing that Apple supports streaming of unprotected content. 

At the very least, why couldn't Spotify say something about it? At least that would have put us on their side.

Instead, the current perception of Spotify is a muddled one of greed and withholding features from customers in order to get back at their stronger and richer competitor.

 

Either way, all I've gathered from this is that Spotify has now officially run out of excuses once Watch OS 7 rolls through, which will be in a few months. If Spotify doesn't offer offline downloads and streaming by the end of 2020 then we know very well where they stand on the matter.  

 

 

andremarc
Casual Listener
2020-07-02 11:06 AM

100% still Spotify's fault. They could help the situation by informing their users of this situation, and providing a roadmap. If the issue were identified as an Apple one, then Apple's customers (including myself) could direct their ire at them instead of Spotify.

 

Poor communication and community engagement is the fault squarely of Spotify.

r-gon
Newbie
2020-07-02 07:42 PM

Sad to say, because I've been enjoying Spotify for a long time, but that's a feature I'm really looking forward to...

 

I'll wait a couple more months to see what gives after apple launches watchOS 7, but if nothing changes I'll end up migrating to Apple Music, which has the feature.

 

Whoever the fault is, doesn't matter much from my customer point of view...

mrX
Regular
2020-07-03 01:57 AM

Why in 2020 I cannot listen offline on apple watch, will unsubscribe.

RollingSlyStone
Newbie
2020-07-04 01:17 PM

Apple Watch OS now allows 3rd party apps to utilise cellular for streaming and other music streaming providers already offer this feature. Come on Spotify, keep up!

0 Likes
chigy
Visitor
2020-07-07 01:44 PM

Common Spotify, don't let us down.

It is possible, make us Watch-Users happy, we don't wanna carry our IPhones all the time.

Make it happen. Implement Watch-Streaming an Offline-Playing!

0 Likes