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Help us improve Chromecast

Help us improve Chromecast

Hi all,

 

I’m the Product Manager for the Big Screen Experience here at Spotify.

 

As you may have noticed, we have made a change recently in how the Chromecast app looks and performs.

Our main goal with this change was to rebuild the underlying infrastructure and logic to make it more performant and permit us to develop faster on the platform.

 

This also required us to overhaul the whole user interface. As you can see, it doesn’t look much today and our intent is to quickly learn and improve the experience.

 

We've already received a lot of feedback from you - the community. We would like to understand the feedback better which is why we’re opening up this thread to discuss with you directly on what could be improved and understand the why’s.

 

One of the things that we came across was that many people were missing previous and next song which was shown in the old design but isn’t anymore. Please let us know more how this was used and why it’s important for you.

 

Thanks.

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88 Replies

Hi, the screen looks great, however there is an issue. I'm currently using a gen 1 Chromecast, whenever i'm casting music, if i were to shuffle a playlist or add a song to my queue. The screen shows the action taking effect and the app shows that the connection is dropped immediately. Even though the app shows the connection dropped, the Chromecast continues playing Spotify. 

To Spotify Folks...  Thanks for the recent rollout for Spotify for Chromecast...

 

What I like/noticed:

1) The Spotify trademark is (has been for a while) back up in the top left corner.

2) The soft, changing (after each song) background colors are pleasing to the eye and add a degree of class to the viewing portion of the experience.

3) I like the top left also now showing what is playing is a clear nice-sized font (the album name if you are playing an album, or the name of the playlist if you are playing a playlist).  The one slight drawback/tradeoff here is that if I am playing a playing a playlist, the name of the album does not appear anywhere, but with the album art right in front of you, that is usually not an issue.  Overall, I like the setup.

4) I can get used to, actually I kind of like, that the control buttons (e.g. shuffle, repeat, pause) only pop up on the screen when they are activated on the phone, and in green as they are on the phone.  This allows the user to know what is activated - very cool.

So, thanks for these pleasing-to-the-eye updates.

 

What I'm still hoping for, and as I can tell from the other replies, so are many others:

Finishing up the cosmetic stuff...

1) The name of the artist below the name of the song is still quite small

2) There appears to be space to the left and right of main now-playing album cover, so hopefully we could see in the next rollout, the previous/next album covers, maybe 1/2 to 2/3 size of now-playing album cover on the left/right sides, as was the setup several months ago, and as Pompa mentioned in one of his initial replies.  Looking over all the replies here, many of us very much liked that visual previous/current/next song concept.  Bring it back please.

Non-Cosmetic Stuff...

1) Gapless playback...  First thing I did was put on Beatles' Abbey Road and there was no gapless playback.  Not good for any album like this or live albums as others have mentioned on this board.  Any chance for gapless playback, please!!!

2) Shuffling... same problem still exists.  Any larger playlist does not shuffle past a certain group of songs, so for example, if one has a 1000 song playlist, in alpha order, well, it will never shuffle past the songs that begin with A or B.  One may have some luck if the process is initiated from the computer, but as another poster mentioned, it will eventually go back to the small range of songs.  This is difficult to accept, as I would imagine a lot of folks use the Spotify/Chromecast experience when entertaining, etc. and that's exactly when a big playlist is likely being used. Regardless, shuffling large playlist is fine on the computer, or phone, just not when Chromecasting - very unfortunate... so let's hope this is also addressed in the next rollout.

 

Maybe a few more comments/suggestions as this new rollout is used.

 

Thanks for your ongoing efforts to make Spotify Chromecast experience the best it can be!  I hope to see more updates in the near-future!

Sad to see that Pompa left Spotify recently. I hope the new product manager is still working on the feedback that was posted here.

 

Edit: Just saw 

MattSudaSpotify Star
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I'm here in spirit instead. 😉

@pompa

 

Good luck on your next adventure 🙂

MattSudaSpotify Star
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I have not done a force stop, but many times closing and relaunching the app "fixes" this problem.

 

Btw, there is an ongoing discussion about this issue here https://community.spotify.com/t5/Other-Partners-Windows-Phone-etc/Chromecast-not-showing-in-Spotify-...

 

So glad to meet you and appreciate you reaching out for feedback. While the majority of comments here are UI related, I'll focus on issues related to your focus: performance. And there are some issues....

 

Issue 1: Spotify can't find Chromecast. This happens frequently and is very frustrating. Open app, select Devices Available, 'no chromecast' - close Spotify, relaunch, select Devices Available, select Chromecast device. 

 

Unfortunately, that doesn't always work, so plan B is often launching Pandora - which never has had a problem connecting.

 

 

I saw a few mention it in this thread, but here's an ongoing post with lots of details Chromecast-not-showing-in-Spotify-App Btw, the post says it's solved - it is NOT solved.

 

Issue 2: Losing volume controls when casting: Frequently, after a short while of casting I lose volume control (even when phone is awake). Pressing the handset volume button adjusts the phone's ringtone level. Closing and relaunching Spotify almost always clears theis up - but that's obviously a nuisance. Here's an ongoing disucssion related to this problem Losing-Volume-Control-with-Chromecast

 

Issue 3: Shuffle Issues. This one too has been mentioned in this thread. Some of this has to do with human perception of randomness, but I can tell you somethings amiss with your shuffle program. 

 

Issue 4: Random disconnects. Occasionally, Spotify just disconnects from Chromecast. The TV will continue to play, but the phone is stuck on last song. Sometimes I can reconnect and the songs will sync back up - othertimes, it basically starts a new listening session.

 

Issue 5: No volume control while phone is asleep. Most of the time this works, but sometimes it doesn't and you have to bring the app up on the phone screen. This is not nearly as frustrating as issue 2 above, but it's a nice feature to have working. 

 

I'll be happy to share more comments about UI and other useful features to develop, but clearly no point until at least issues 1 and 2 are resolved.

 

Thanks!

I just got a chance to test out the recent improvements to the new Chromecast UI. I really like the new changes.

 

What I like:

 

  • Spotify logo with the title of the playlist you are currently playing from is nice
  • The colored background that matches the album art is nice. No more boring black. It's more in line with the now playing screen on the mobile app. The color choices are stronger than the subtle colors used on the now playing screen in the mobile app. I prefer the stronger colors in the Chromecast UI
  • I like that you got rid of the forward and next icons as they were not helpful for the TV UI
  • I like that the repeat and shuffle icons only show up if they are activated and they show as green so you can easily see them
  • I like the pause icon in the lower right to clearly show that playback is paused

 

What I don't like:

 

  • Progress bar, time stamps, and song artist are all still hard to see. It looks like they are invisible -- can't see them at all. Blends in with the background. Remember most people are sitting a ways back on the couch in either a bright room or a dark room. The song title is readable -- everything else should be the same white color as the song title (not invisible) but I would like if the font size was bigger
MattSudaSpotify Star
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An excellent point - 

 


@aloukissas wrote:

 

1. Biggest UX issue: to cast music, one needs to "play, hit pause, select chromecast, hit play again". In all other cast-enabled apps (TuneIn, Netflix, YouTube, etc), one has an option to switch to cast at any point (commonly in the upper-right part of the app).

 


Instead of the easy-to-use cast icon on the home screen, you require users to navigate a convoluted series of steps: After launching app, 1) select "playing now" then 2) select 'devices available' and finally 3) select Chromecast (if it's listed - see my previous complaint...).

 

That's 3 steps instead of one - I would tend to agree with aloukissas statement that  Chromecast appears to be a low priority at Spotify, an afterthought for your product team.

 

 

Please bring back the cover art for the upcoming and last played songs. 

 

If you heard a new song that you liked, but were away from the display, it was very helpful to be able to later look and see what it was.

 

Likewise, it was nice to be able to see what's coming up next.

First and foremost fix the streaming stability issues it's had for the last few months.  It's honestly embarrassing how bad it is now.  Spotify will stream to my Chromecast for an indeterminate amount of time (sometimes a half hour, sometimes just one song) then stop, usually between songs but sometimes during.  Then when I go to reconnect it either refuses to connect (just says "connecting..." for several seconds and then gives up) or my Chromecast and often other streaming devices such as my receiver, PS4, etc. don't even show up when I click on "Devices." It even happens when streaming to my receiver and PS4. I know it isn't my Chromecast because I own 2 video and one audio Chromecasts and it happens on all of them and never happens with any other streaming service I use. I know it isn't my wifi because I've used two different cable companies and have had 3 different routers in the last few months and it happens on all of them. I've been with Spotify for several years, but I've about had it.  Either this gets fixed soon or I'm moving over to Google Music.

I am having trouble connecting to the chromecast in the first place already. So for me, the UI doesn't feel like it should be topmost priority. Having 2 chromecasts, i find it odd that the ios app doesnt detect neither of them, while youtube and netflix always do. Is this a separate issue, or do you think this is caused by the rehaul of the chromecast app you mention?

Glad to see continued progress, and glad Spotify is still listening and working on making this a better experience.  For those of you thinking of switching, don't.  Currently, the Spotify Chromecast UI/experience is best out there, and it's getting better all the time.  My goodness, Google Play's UI (a zoomed-in, pixelated view of the top portion of the album) is the ugliest, most ridiculous look I have ever seen... and Spotify on Roku/Firestick is horrible, as is Amazon Music (those, I have tested).  So let's continue with good feedback here to Spotify and hope they continue to listen!

 

I did notice today for the first time "Behind the Lyrics" commentary on the screen while playing a few songs...  not many, just a couple out of some very old popular groups like the Beatles or Animals, inter-mixing lyrics and some tid-bits of the song playing.  When this happened, the album art shifted to the left, and the facts came up on the right portion of the screen.  It was okay, not great, but some interesting facts about the song was fun.  Problem is, most of the songs had nothing, and the songs were all 60-70's popular hits.  However, on my phone, I have the option to turn this feature off, but even if I turn it off, it still shows up on my tv via Chromecast, so I have no option via Chromecast?

 

To reiterate what several other users have posted...  yes, there is connection reliabilty issues. If it's the first time, thinks often work ok.  However, I could just finish playing a short playlist on Chromecast, and if it times-out for a few minutes, and I try to play my next playlist, well, quite often I can't connect.  I have to get out of Spotify, sometimes even reboot my phone, to get a clean setup and re-connect.  Hard to explain allthe details, but it's just not reliable.

 

Also, I'm not being negative, just honest, but I getting so desperate for proper shuffling of a 1000 song playlist that I have to initiate this process via the computer in order not to listen to songs from a certain section of the playlist.  Lastly, can someone from Spotify please tell us whether gapless playback is a future possibility - I hope so.

 

Thanks for listening to our experiences - I'm sure we all want the best product that can be attained and I for one, will continue to hope for improvements over time, as so many of these posts make valid points.

 

Thnks Spotify for listening.

So is this thread still active? I know pompa, the product manager, left Spotify - has anyone taken over that role - or just isakb working on this? 

 

I've seen many of the suggestions posted here regarding aesthetics have been adopted (color background, removal of clutter, etc.) and fairly well received.

 

But what about the small, unreadable text for artist name that so many have complained about? Song name could be bigger too - it is a 'big screen' experience afterall...

 

Seems font size would be one of the easier changes you can make to improve the experience!

Sadly, all work that seems to go into the app is "aesthetics". The functional bugs with chromecast support are many and sadly, all the designers in the world can't fix them. Spotify has too many of those, yet too few engineers.

@pompa

HI, many complaints in the forums about tv screen pixel are freezed for a long time causing pixel bursts and tv image retention (specially on oled).

 

It is really frustrating trying to use Spotify with Chromecast. It is a miriacle if you get it to connect, once you connect it you cant close the app or it loses track of the connection and then youre left with the chromecast just playing music and cant stop it from your phone.

It is the only app that works like that. Netflix, Youtube, Pandora, TuneIn, you name it, they all work great and never lose track of their casting connection.

Spotify is such a great service, that it is sad not being able to enjoy it with today's streaming capabilities.

I have my hopes up that the developer team will work through the issues. Don't let us down!!

Chromecast use is absolutely awful.  It's unstable in that I cannot cast for long periods (more than 30-60 minutes) from a browser tab.

If I cast from the Android app on a Samsung Galaxy S7 running version "8.4.32.623 armV7", then I lose Chromecast volume control after about 30 minutes, only regaining it if I reboot my phone.  (I've already added the Spotify app to not be battery optimized.)

The Spotify app in Windows does not allow casting at all.

 

I'm currently at home, trying to stream Christmas music from the windows desktop app, the web app on Spotify's website, or from my Android phone none of them are currently viable options.  I spend as much time listening as I do trying to debug why it's stopped working.

 

Your efforts to overhaul Chromecast integration are massively failing.  I'd rather have an unoptimized app than one that doesn't work at all.

 

All I want is for Spotify to be able to cast.  From ANY app.

You're right.  Google Play's UI is lousy to look at and short on features.  But it's stable. I'm one of those weirdos that's likes music playing virtually all day.  I've been listening via Chromcast for several hours on Google Play without a single hiccup. When I was using Spotify I'd be lucky to get an hour out of it before the stream would stop and the app, the device or the Chromecast itself needed a restart in order to get the stream going again. I reluctantly dumped Spotify after several years of paid subscription and I'm never going back. It comes down to the question of "do you want the app to do what it's supposed to do or look pretty."  How much time do you spend interacting with the app vs how much time do you spend listening?  

Google Play Music, while not pretty and doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, is at least stable and reliable.  After years of paid Spotify subscription I switched a few months ago.  No regrets.

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