iOS. Spotify lock screen widget was replaced and works completely different

[quovadis0]

Plan

Premium

Device

(iPhone 14 pro)

Operating System

(iOS 17.6.1)

My Question or Issue

Spotify widget used to open the home page of the app. But today it was changed and now it just starts one of your recent playlists. Previous widget is no longer available and I cannot get it back. Updated to the last version.

[Kjsinkowski]

Did you have to delete and reinstall? Mine is still the old version and not working right 

[markokulis]

The old widget appeared after an update. Delete the widget, update, and then add the widget again.

[Kjsinkowski]

Did that, no luck. Are you using the square widget or the rectangle widget? 

[markokulis]

Hmm, weird. I use square, that's the only one I can choose. Which iOS are you using, 17 or 18?

[Kjsinkowski]

18.3.2!

[markokulis]

I really don't know. Maybe things will improve with version 18.4. Definitely update the app every week.

[Budney76]

I just got the new play now widgets about a week ago, how annoying!!! So far my app and phone are updated, uninstalled/reinstalled the app, no change back to the old widgets. I'm on iOS 18.3.2 & app version 9.0.30.604. Please revert/fix this massive annoyance or at least give us an option!

[NorthernLaw]

This isn't really a "solution" but it fixed the issue for me: I decided to change my widgets as I wanted ones that were not controlled by a third party. So I used the Apple method of putting an icon there to launch an app, and since I have the iPhone 16 Pro, I replaced the camera button bottom right with the "launch app" widget and put in Spotify.

So for those of you with an iPhone 16 Pro, not using those bottom 2 buttons for anything as of now, this is the best option. I now have 2 functional widgets at the top displaying actual useful info, and bottom right is saved for a button. To be honest I like this better anyways because now my lock screen looks better. So thanks Spotify for breaking another feature to open my eyes and move away from whatever it is you are doing.

I'm extremely close to switching music services.... One more screw up and I'm gone, recommending friends to do the same as well.