Android Feedback

[personanongrata]

Attention Customer Support team:

We all know that Spotify for Android is likely the worst app that most Android users will ever come into contact with, but we must be vigilant in maintaining a constant revenue stream from this platform.  We must ensure that the number of enamored new Android users signing up for Premium each month exceeds the number of disillusioned users canceling Premium each month.  Since we do not have the resources to adequately develop and maintain our Android application, the following policies are imperative to promoting the sensation of customer responsiveness, and keep our users hoping for yet another month, for which they will likely continue their Premium service.

1. Always refer a complaining user to the "troubleshooting" steps -- reinstalling the application, clearing caches, etc., will likely keep him/her occupied for a day or more.

2. When a user complains about a particular issue and also provides information about his/her specific device, inform the user that that particular device is not specifically supported, or that the device does not meet the minimum required specifications to adequately run Spotify.  Then, refer the user to the "troubleshooting" steps, and encourage him/her that the device *should* work if these steps are followed.

3. Although the support forum is not an "official support channel," users who e-mail support should be referred back to the support forum.  Ensure that the e-mail reminds the user that we are continuously working to improve Spotify, and that we need their help to make it even better.

4. Periodically remind users that their particular issue or missing feature request is a high-priority item, and that they should continue to check back every day and check the blog every day for any new information.  Since updates are released at most every eighteen months, this could keep them hanging on indefinitely.

5. When multiple users have identified the same known issue with the software, start a new thread in the forum and redirect them there.  Include a formal template for them to provide additional information.  Remember (very important!) to remind them repeatedly that they are helping to improve the application, and that their input is necessary and invaluable.  These reassurances and the formality of the information submittal process will create a sense of importance for the user, and may even make them feel proud to be contributing to product improvement.  Remember to tell them periodically that their input is being passed to internal development teams and that a fix for this issue is a high priority.  This also creates a sense for new users that their voices will be heard, and may encourage new Premium memberships.

6. For more saavy users who have come to realize that we do not ever fix bugs in our Android app, remind them that they now have radio functionality, and that more great features are coming in the next update.  Remind them that we recently refreshed the user interface while removing many cumbersome features such as playback of local files, landscape mode, showing the album name in playlists, and a "library" playlist, to name a few.

Remember, every issue is a high priority.  And most importantly, remind the user how important his/her feedback is and make him/her feel critical to product improvement.  Together, we can keep Premium users hanging on One More Month (TM).

[Liam]

Really now?

[krikelin]

OK Then take the Android stuff down from the market, it's definitely hurting the company's business unless it can be fixed, because a bad product is best never sold!!

Please fix or remove the Android stuff already, otherwise you're doing false marketing and you can get a bad image and even may be black listed!!

[Rorey]

I've changed the title of this thread to from "Internal Customer Support Memo Leaked" to "Android Feedback" to avoid any obvious confusion that would inevitably occur after reading this message.  

Are you having any specific issues with Spotify? Is there a specific thread you feel needs a fresh response from a community manager or moderator? 

[personanongrata]

thanks for not deleting my post, as i expected you would.

yes, i'm having many specific issues with spotify, all of which have been declared and documented countless times in these forums by countless users.  i am beyond the point of hoping or thinking that any of them may at some point be addressed.  i am beyond the point of playing the "support" games here.  my only mission at this point is to get users to realize that they are being played like a fiddle with all these new request-for-information-with-a-template threads.

[Rorey]

Conversely, you can see we get a lot of new posts each day.  Sometimes these include very general descriptions of the problem. The templates are set us to document and report issues in the most effective way.

Could you link me to the threads you're referring to? I may be able to provide an update or a solution. 

[SteveBrammer]

Rorey,

While I don't agree with @stingraysc's inference that you are just stalling for time (I'm more inclined to believe that you are as powerless as we are when trying to deal with your development teams), there is much here that I have sympathy with.

I know you are only trying to come up with better ways of working, but @PerBonomi's template is very complex and very time consuming to fill in. It also doesn't help when you have spent all the time filling it in to find that the thread you posted in has been locked and you are being asked to send in your report again in a completely different thread. It's a bit rich to ask for feedback and then buckle under the strain and panic when you are overwhelmed with responses (eg. the following threads)

Trouble with the latest release? Let us know.

New iOS release (0.5.3) - report any issues here

It seems to me that Spotify Support is working hard and with the best intentions, but is not being helped at all internally inside the Spotify organisation. There seems to be a complete lack of communication from the development teams back to Support, meaning that while it appears that you are being evasive about if problems are being worked on or if requested features are being implemented, the actual situation is that you just don't know because the development teams don't tell you anything. It's also obvious from some of @PerBonomi's recent posts that the development teams are setting very strict criteria for accepting bugs and unless they are very, very well defined and you have unquestionable proof that a substantial number of users are being affected they are just ignored.

Unfortunately I don't have any solutions, I am just pointing out that you are treading a fine line here because you are beginning to ask an awful lot of your users considering some of the problems that are still outstanding date back from before this forum even existed. If you don't improve your internal communications and start providing more feedback to users in a timely manner then people will give up on this forum as a means to get real problems fixed and it will just fill up with threads about duplicate accounts being created, and playlists being lost.

By the way, those two threads I mentioned above asking for feedback on the new Android and iOS releases were opened by @PerBonomi 6 weeks and 4 weeks ago respectively. Have any of the issues raised in those threads, before they were locked, been resolved? Are they being worked on? Are they accepted as bugs? That's the kind of information we would like to know and would expect to have after more than 4 weeks.

[personanongrata]

again, i'm not faulting any specific person or department here.  the company as a whole is determining what the development team is doing, how much communication it has with support and end users (in both directions), and what tactics the support folks are using to appease users.  i'm not speculating about what's going on internally, other than to say that it must be a total **uh-oh**ing mess.

you are right that they are asking more and more of the users without showing any evidence that this information is even making it to anyone that matters.  if we started to see an update once in awhile that fixed a known bug, users may be more willing to operate as a QA department, but we're not getting that.  i really believe it is all a sham to convince users that their concerns are important to spotify.  a large majority of the major issues in this app can be experienced and identified by *anyone* who fires it up and plays with it for a few minutes -- they are not device-specific -- they are poor software, period.  one internal tester with a handful of phones should be all that is needed to at least identify these issues, many of which i am certain (as a developer) could be fixed in a matter of days (and that is generous).  it's as if they are trying to portray these as difficult-to-find, subtle, strange bugs that only affect certain users with certain phones on certain networks at certain times of day when the moon is in certain phases.  it's all ridiculous.  anyone touching this app will find these bugs within moments.

@stevebrammer, as to the questions you ask, with all due respect, you know the answers -- why keep asking?  everything is a high-priority and everything is being worked on, and everything will be fixed in a future TBD update.  how many years do we have to be told this before we accept that it's a blatant lie?

[licenced]

---

@personanongrata wrote:

it's as if they are trying to portray these as difficult-to-find, subtle, strange bugs that only affect certain users with certain phones on certain networks at certain times of day when the moon is in certain phases.  it's all ridiculous.  anyone touching this app will find these bugs within moments.

---

To be fair that's not the case. Personally I have none of the many 'issues' that are reported daily on here, apart from the high data usage - I'm finding the new app to be very stable on both ICS and JB, as are a lot of my friends who also use it on a number of different phones. Obviously we're all missing the features you mention that used to be in the old app that are now not in the new one, and that's another matter.

As with anything though, people will generally only post on forums etc if something is wrong, rarely if everything is fine. And yes there are several posts a day about some of the more common issues, but I would guess that a majority don't have a problem.

You may see some of the points in your first post as delaying tactics, but you as a developer must know the benefit of pooling all issue logs together so that you can a) see if there is a commonality that is causing it so that you can recreate it and b) work out how high priority a resolution is. It's no use there being a thousand different threads a month, in no standard format, as that would take several people's time just to read and categorise and continually (as it did/does) push the larger threads off the first page.

I'm not trying to justify anything, or claim that some of what you say is untrue, but I do think that having an active mod or two in this forum now is a good thing - for goodness sake it's what we've been shouting for for months now. Perhaps this is a sign that Spotify are (glacially, maybe) reviewing their communication policy and we'll start to get more info - we never used to get even a gruding admittance of issues having been properly logged or being worked up until a week or three ago. At least it's a start. And it's only with some more vocal users such as Steve and others - people that stick around complaining rather than just posting once and never again - that messages will get through to those that set policy.

[personanongrata]

well, i'm still on gingerbread, but i see many of the issues that i personally experience have also been reported by people on ICS, so i am amazed that everything works flawlessly for you, and i know you are a saavy user.

the level of information that is being requested of users and the types of bugs i see in this app suggest to me that little or no testing is happening internally -- that's the problem.  my point is that all (or the vast majority) of these issues that require threads full of formal bug reports should have been found and addressed by a proper development/QA organization.  products that send GIGABYTES worth of rogue data per month across mobile networks, without anyone seeming to know how or why this is happening (for MONTHS), or even acknowledging that it *is* happening is a pretty good indication that we're not dealing with any sort of competent organization here.

[0703814097]

How to cancel my android mobile premium? I needs help now!!!!! Susanne

[user-removed]

Hey there Susanne and very warm welcome to the Spotify Community 🙂

Thanks for your question.

Can I help you in something with Spotify before you cancel? I can make you happy with Spotify, just tell me where you need help with it!

If you feel that you need to cancel now. You can cancel your Premium from Spotify site.

Spotify will miss you if you go. You can subscribe to Premium at any time in future! Welcome back soon.

If any problems with Spotify in future, just come back and let me know. I will help you.

Greetings,
Jyri

[davejp84]

I will start by saying i love spotify. the music is fantastic and the available library is huge.

Unfortunately it has been let down (for me at least) by the android app.

I have been messing around with it for the last week and have had non stop problems with songs disapearing and it filling the 4Gb internal memory and ignoring the 60Gb card.

Luckily i am only on the free trial at the moment, but this is not a good way to impress your potential customers.

The most i am going to pay is for unlimited on PC, the mobile version for me is useless.

I'm using a Samsung galaxy S3 mini.

I have been through all the mentioned suggestions, but like most its no good for now.

I even bought a new phone partly to accomodate spotify only to be dissapointed.

Such a shame, such a shame, as i hate the advertising saturated radio stations I was listening to on the move ( which i will have to revert to as signal is not good where i work.

[Joe]

Hey @davejp84 Sounds like you've had more than your fair share of frustrations but we can probably resolve the issues you've been having, if you'd like to try.

Let's start with the app not using your external SD card. Try these steps.

• Delete cache in spotify settings (you will lose any synched/downloaded music but playlists will be safe)
• Uninstall the app
• Make sure that your external SD card has substantially more free space than internal storage
• Install spotify from Google Play

Hopefully this will reolve one of your issues, then we can move onto the next one 🙂

[davejp84]

Joe, I reinstalled spotify to follow your instructions to the letter.

No joy, its sitting here loading up the internal storage and not touching the card.

It has chosen a 4gb location over a 61Gb location.

I am gutted that i cant have spotify on my phone because of something beyond my control.

My trial ends on the 21st.

Unless something miraculous happens between now and then, i'll be cancelling on the 20th.

[davejp84]

My stubbornness has led me to stumble upon a **POTENTIAL** fix for the ignoring of larger capacity locations for the songs.

I have not thouroughly tested this, so it is only potential solution at this stage, i will post back later to update you.

I was looking at the file system on my SD card (via USB cable) and it said it was a Generic file system, or words to that effect.

Thinking that was a bit odd, I checked that there was nothing of value on the card and got the phone to format it, twice.

Now that the phone had set the card up to how it wants it, Spotify is now downloading to the card.

I have had it downloading to the card before, only to flip back to internal storage so i may regret this post later on.

I just wanted to post my findings to potentially help others in this situation.

If this works and i can use spotify on the go, i will be one very happy bunny!

[Joe]

Just to let you know, Samsung phones are known to be fussy with external SD cards and the cheaper generic cards can cause issues. The most common one is that the card simply unmounts when the phone is restarted, in which case spotify will complain that it can't find the storage location. I only mention that in case you experience this.

Anyway, good to know that formatting the card has go things moving for you. If you have any other issues, please shout 🙂

[davejp84]

SIT-REP

At the moment, music seems to be staying downloaded on the card, although It is re-downloading a few songs at the moment, but I imagine thats to do with changing the quality of downloads from normal to high quality. 

Next problem is that I am unable to play songs while offline from the starred playlist that I have marked as "available offline" on the PC version.

Any ideas as to how to enable offline play?..

I have had the Offline withdrawn message on the Desktop version if that means anything to the mobile version?..

[Joe]

Sure, you need to download your starred playlist to your mobile. If it includes local music as well as spotify content, the best way is to do this over your home wifi connection.

• Make sure spotify is running on your PC and that the android appears under "Devices" on the desktop client.
• Long press on "Starred" on the android and select Download or select "Starred" to open the playlist and hit the Download button.

[davejp84]

Joe, thanks for your reply.

Maybe i could have worded it more clearly.

I know how to get the playlists downloaded and enable offline play.

Thats not the problem,

The problem is that once i put spotify mobile into offline mode wiith a fully downloaded playlist, it will not play anything until i put it back online.

This is a problem as where i work the signal is weak so i cant rely on it being online.

I am not using local files either.

This is (as far as i know) the only remaining problem.

Any input would be appreciated.