[iOS][Discover] Restore Touch Preview on iOS App

[user-removed]

Touch preview removal on last iOS vers. update looks like it hasn't been a great idea. You are on time to restore it, one of the best Spotify features.

[kennedy393202]

Please bring it back!!! It’s so hard to make playlists now when I have so many songs to rifle through, and it honestly makes the add songs feature entirely pointless now because you can’t even listen to the songs it suggests! It’s definitely been a turning point for some people in deciding to stop using Spotify, and it may become one for me as well. 

[annabarbosa]

Awful update. Bring back the preview feature. Im switching to youtube music.

[whatisdelicious]

Years later and I still miss this feature. It made it really easy when I'm looking for a specific song and can't remember the name or if I just want to quickly zoom through a playlist to see which songs are worth doubling back for, etc. No other music app ever replicated this feature. What a bummer.

[TJabbour]

Echoing those before me. Literally just logged in to Spotify after years with Apple Music. I switched specifically because this feature was removed.

[handehboots]

Hi team,

I see your pinned response to this thread is from early 2019, which is a little discouraging considering it's now early 2023.

I'm an academic, design researcher and UX/UI designer, so my comment is coming from a place of quite nuanced usability and accessibility experience.

Please consider reinstating the hold-to-preview feature. You cite 'low engagement' as the reason for this feature being dropped, but have you considered how this feature was advertised/marketed to users? I vividly recall many friends, peers, colleagues and other users of Spotify in my network being entirely unaware this feature even existed. Consider how, if the feature were to be reinstated, this is actually communicated to users. I will say, the app has evolved and improved significantly since this feature was dropped.

If there are no plans to reinstate this feature (which is evidently highly requested, being in the top 10 live ideas by vote count), then perhaps communicating the intent with users/customers would be worthwhile. I've been a user for... maybe a decade, and this is the first time I've ever felt strongly enough to even make a comment on the community forums, if that means anything.

Thanks for your time ☺️

[TJabbour]

Great response above! Appreciate the POV, and it has not been the first time it’s been shared. Fact is, I was also almost always met with surprise upon showing friends and family a song’s preview. Everyone would ask, “how do you do that!?”

I eventually left for Apple Music, which now has my entire Family and extended Family’s business. I can only consider returning to Spotify if/when this feature is re-added. 

Thanks to all that have participated in this discussion. 

P.S. I bet a few surveys with negative comments can get the attention of those we may need to carry this issue internally and, perhaps, get something done about it. 

[silver25u]

I continue to miss this feature daily.  It was extremely convenient for discovering new music while listening to music. Given how many buttons and steps are involved in the current user interface an button-less feature has merit.

[ThomasEighty]

I still miss this feature.  But the recent addition of “Explore this playlist” on Spotify curated playlists a great alternative though!

[denisgmi]

1. Can’t believe it’s 2023 and we still haven’t heard from this feature again, it was literally THE BEST feature which was available only on Spotify. I miss it everyday.

[TJabbour]

Saddest part of this removal was the reasoning that was originally given, which we all know has some "blended figures" included, i.e., is bs. We were told that such a few % of the user base used this feature and that's why it was removed. In fact, we all can see clearly that it is either A) a licensing issue with 30 sec previews being disallowed by record labels, and/or B) the math used to report low usage of that feature was flawed. What defines used? Used once, twice, or ongoing? How often? Weekly, Monthly, All Time?

Many questions left...years later. It was an amazing feature that was robbed from the userbase. Spotify, please bring this feature back, or at least investigate further.