Are the Spotify UI engineers smoking crack?

[quiffhanger]

Just having a play with the Spotify app for my android based home-theatre. I can only assume you need to be having a drug-induced psychotic episode to understand it's logic.

Take queue management. Surely browsing a collection and choosing what song or album to stick on next is bread & butter for a music player? Winamp made this easy 15 years ago but even finding the play queue on Android is quite a feat. The hunt includes amusing pitfalls like an identical icon taking you somewhere else completely.

Or when viewiing an Album, what are you most likely to want to do? Call me old fashoined but I'd choose the following:

1. Play the album
2. Add the album to my queue to play next

But no! There's not even a play icon anywhere! Queuing is buried inside a non-obivous menu option but it's really easy to hit hit that bloody radio icon and interupt the song you're listening to. Just to be really clear (this also goes for the windows app), there's a big button for "play random other songs by this artist" but there's not a big button "play this album". Right...

Sure all the social features are nice but let's get our priorities right here. I mean, no ability to modify the queue: wtf!?

As a simple test - can you imagine anyone unfamiliar with the app having half a hope of choosing what song to stick on next without clicking the wrong thing and interrupting the music? The first generation iPod could pass this test, This app certainly couldn't.

Am I missing something?

-ross

[HrKristian]

You're not wrong.

I rarely, almost never, use it for anything else than playing the playlists I've made on the computer.

What's more, the fact that they've "downgraded" the app with later releases and haven't added anything new that's of actual importance is really moronic.

Spotify used to be a good thing, what the H happened.

[atexit]

Hey, Ross, HrKristian!

I'm going to be sad to lay off the crack, but if that is what it takes.. 🙂

Thank you for your feedback, I'll make sure to talk to my product owner about your suggestions. I personally think that the Play Album thing is a great idea.

The quick actions can be difficult to press but  you can long-press to get to the menu almost everywhere. I hope that helps a bit. This also works in the play queue, where you can at least delete queued items.

Would you guys mind expanding a bit on what you feel is lacking? By modifying the queue, do you mean re-ordering songs?

I wanted to share a little something that we don't talk about that often, about the "downgraded" part. So that you get to see our point of view as well. 

We rewrote most of the old app to get rid of a lot of really nasty bugs and some seriously unmaintainable code. This unfortunately meant cutting out some of the existing features, at least for the time being, simply due to a lack of time and and due to complexities in those features.

Even so, we did fix things like the play queue ordering, the fact that you can have large playlists, or more than a 100 playlists without crashing, we added folder support, better notifications, cleaned up the login/signup flow so that is less buggy, added higher sound quality options, support for gapless playback and crossfading, added the radio, added support for lock screen controls and for audio effects (i.e.. equalizer) and cleaned up the UI a lot including adding the album and artist views that you are talking about. We all want to do more, sadly we're only so many developers.

Looking forward to more of your feedback 🙂

/Mikael -- one of the android devs. 

[SteveBrammer]

@atexit, If only someone had put out a statement like this back in April when you released the preview version of the new Android client, then we may have had more sympathy. But you (not you personally) sold it as a new and better rebuilt client when in so many areas it obviously isn't. It's still disappointing however that 7 months down the line you still haven't managed to put back the features that were left out due to time constraints.

Communication is still Spotify's biggest problem so I hope you will be more active here and fill us all in on the thinking behind what you are doing and more importantly what you aren't doing and why.

[Stupify]

Many of us are happy when you fix something that needs to be fixed. The golden rule of internet forums is that people aren't going to post unless they actually have a problem with something, so no matter what, things will be negative for the most part.

What exactly have you done in the last two months? Most people see the last update as the worst joke ever: all you did was add a Facebook feature that nobody ever asked for and added an insulting signup method that only gives the option to use Facebook - an option to make a spotify account isn't there. It's like Mark Zuckerberg was the man behind the last update.

Right now, the most requested features are a landscape mode and having downloaded playlists be stored on an external SD card.

[HrKristian]

I recently went back to the old version, to change the storage location (it's an easy and quick fix to the problem), and yes, the app is much, much better with the re-release.
Aside from the storage location thing, the only thing that bugs me about the spotify app now is the iOS look. Back when it was dark and green it looked great, and dark color drained battery less. I'd love to be able to choose my theme.
I think this is what under people's skin some 7 months ago, you cut a lot of features and "dumbed it down", and it got the iOS look to really symbolize what had happened. Later on cool features like 'extreme quality' and gapless was added, but now that you've got the FB integration going and all is well in the world, it would be very nice to see the base functionality improved. Things like playlist management, improved artist overview and most important to me: UI customization

[volcacius]

@atexit I consider myself a long time spotify user considering a started using it before the iOS client was released, which is more than 3 years ago. At that time spotify was still a startup, so I had little expectations about its future or its services. Time has passed, spotify has become bigger and now, at least for mobile users, is a premium service, something serious considering they are also talking about a possible IPO. Now, spotify makes profits mostly from mobile users. It has to fight not only against piracy, but also Apple, google, Microsoft and many other smaller alternatives. You would expect then its mobile apps to be not just perfect, but at a state of art level. Instead they're far below the average. Look at Rdio, which I suppose has less users than spotify: they keep updating and updating their apps. What have been done in months after april besides radio? Nothing. Not even fixing the large amount of bugs that are spread all over the forum. I don't want to be aggressive, but this is not accettable. The we are a small team etc excuse is not acceptable anymore. You are not a startup anymore, you provide a premium service and people expect it to work, at least the basic features. I'm talking about both the iOS and Android version. let's take for example two basic feature that in more than 3 YEARS has been lacking from both clients: sorting and same song repetition. How is that possible? They are the most basic features on earth, the kind of feature you can find on any amatorial music player, any 10 yrs old mp3 player, and they are still missing from spotify. This is why users are so frustrated. Plus, as it has been said, I think this is the first post who gets commented by a dev in months, only because it has a insulting title. As users, what are we supposed to think? My final thought: as a company that's trying to survive, how can you allow yourself all of that? I understand that you need to focus and growth and that's why you invested so much on social, but the more you grow, the more your fragile roots gets exposed. I love spotify and besides everything said, i still use it daily, but the fact it was the first of its kind on the market doesn't mean it wll be the last, so when a better alternative will be out, people (including myself) 'll switch, like for everything in recent tech history.
Thanks
PS obviosly it wasn't addressed to you personally.

[licenced]

Whoa. A dev commenting on the Android forum. /me shocked

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@atexit wrote:

....

Would you guys mind expanding a bit on what you feel is lacking? By modifying the queue, do you mean re-ordering songs?

...

Looking forward to more of your feedback 🙂

---

I take it you guys have seen this: http://community.spotify.com/t5/Mobile-Android/quot-Official-quot-new-application-release-missing-fe.... Do you seriously need more feedback?

Someone mentioned above that the last update just brought a new sign in mechanism. The one before that brought us a couple of new features - the EQ, which was a minor request compared to many others and NFC sharing. I'd really be surprised if more then seven people have even tried that (and doubly so if it actually worked!) Yes there have been bug fixes as well, and well done for implementing them, but the lack of release notes means no one has any clue that they're there.

[user-removed]

Hey Android dev,

Add volume normalization to app and add ability to hide unplayable content.

[SteveBrammer]

Seriously @atexit, if you haven't already seen @licenced's list before today then we are in serious trouble here. All that tells us is that no one at Spotify, except the support people here in the community, are listening to a single word we say here, and that's disheartening. Although it does maybe explain why none of the major problems that people here reported after the release of the preview version in April have been fixed.

[shweeney]

The app is badly laid out and difficult to navigate around, but the ability to cue up the next playlist is the main missing feature.

you're listening to a playlist, its coming to an end, you want to cue up the next one, but you can't.  You can add individual songs to the queue (though they get added as the next song, rather than to the end of the existing queue). 

If your playlist is a single album you can do More->Album->Menu->Queue but this is seriously non-intuitive, and as the app is mostly based around playlists rather than albums, illogical.

On any playlist, song or album it should be possible to press the menu button and choose "Queue Next" and "Add to end of current queue" - this is basic stuff that every other music player has.

It should also be possible to sort playlists alphabetically, put them into groups/folders etc. - TBH Spotify should make it easier to navigate by artist and album, the whole playlist thing is cumbersome.

[quiffhanger]

Hi Mikael,

Sorry - coming back to this a little late. A lot has been covered by other posters but to add my 2cents:

For me obvious missing feature is decent playlist management. However, just as importantly I think the some of the underlying "user journey's" need to re-thought. Really basic stuff like "from here what is a user most likely to want to do next", and making sure that's 1 or at most 2 clicks away.

The real test for me is can my friends & flatmates who dont know spotify get their head around the app quickly enough that I can hand-over my phone and let them pick a few songs/albums for the playlist. I tried this and there was no chance. It's not impossible though - Apple managed it with the iPod.

To list a few more specifics:

1. Home screen is plain wrong (and ugly). the first heading I see is "Downloaded": wtf? I just want to play some music! For me all your playlists (or recently played music) with a special icon which indicates available offline would suffice. Of course if you are offline only show what's available offline.
2. The current queue is too hard to find. 2 non-obvious clicks away from the home "playlist" screen.
3. Playlist and albums need a play button. It's not intuitive that playing the first song will play the entire thing.
4. It's too easy to accidently stop the current song - most people find it really annoying when a song stops mid-play. A single hit on another song, if something is playing shoud either default to next in queue (and clearly state that's what's happened) or force the user to choose what to do next. Also give them a preference to change the default behaviour - different strokes and all that.
5. Playlist icon is too similar the menu icon.
6. Cant queue a playlist
7. Little square arrow bottom right versus touch & hold - confuses me. They are quite similar but little square arrow menu generally doesn't display what I'm most likely to do next. And I intuitively  hit back to get out of it which closes the app!
8. Search for an album & click on it, get into the album page: how do I now queue it? I have to go back up! Again - every album, playlist & song should have consistent options for "play now" and "queue next".

I do however, have a bit of an apology to make: first time I used this it was on my home theatre PC via a remote control (with up-down-left-right arrow and a go button), not a touch screen -  the experience is better on a touch screen but I think Android HTPCs are growing quick so they are probably worth consideration.

hth and dont forget: drugs are bad, mkay 😉

-ross

[atexit]

Hi, again!

I've seen your list before. Thank you for making it. 🙂

We try to ask people directly when they do express concern. 

We try to follow the forums as well as we can. We're not a lot of people in the android team, and most of you guys probably prefer that we spend our time coding rather than posting in the forum all the time. This is the first time (well, second now) that I've actually felt that I've had time to sit down and write a thought through reply. 🙂

We do try to prioritize so that you guys will be happy, but as I'm sure you already know there is more to SW development than just building new features or adding old, mostly broken features. Spotify the service is in itself a moving target, which we have to keep up with and our codebase always needs refactoring. That might not show up in a change log, but it makes sure that you continue to have a wholesome service at your fingertips. 

Some of the things in the list, we will never build, because it doesn't fit in with the application, or it will bloat it and make it harder to maintain and extend. As to a change log for every bug we fix, I personally don't think most users would get anything out of it, but I'll talk to my product owner about it. We're limited to 500 characters though, so we can't mention every single one even if we wanted to. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

/Mikael (oops, forgot to quote..)

---

@licenced wrote:

Whoa. A dev commenting on the Android forum. /me shocked

[SteveBrammer]

Mikael, thanks for participating here, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to pull you up on a few things.

Firstly, your reply reads like a list of excuses for why there has been no apparent changes to the Android app in the last 7 months. It doesn't sound positive at all and gives the impression that we are not likely to see any changes any time soon (please correct me if I'm misunderstanding you).

Secondly, if the Spotify platform is so much of a moving target, how are we ever going to see any new features implemented? Your reply suggests that all your time is currently taking up just keeping the app that we already have, in a working state.

Finally, you said there are things on @licenced's list that won't ever be implemented because they don't fit the application or Spotify's vision. What are theses things? @licenced's list has been here in the community forum for 7 months, if you have already made some decisions about what you are and aren't going to do then why hasn't anyone from Spotify commented on this? Yet again the lack of communication here is infuriating.

[atexit]

Hi Ross,

All of that is great feedback, detailed and precise. Thank you for taking the time!

I'll forward all of this to my product owner. I can't make any promises, but at least now you guys know that we are working on the app, and not just on our office skateboard skills or crack habits. 

/Mikael

---

@quiffhanger wrote:

Hi Mikael,

Sorry - coming back to this a little late. A lot has been covered by other posters but to add my 2cents:

For me obvious missing feature is decent playlist management. However, just as importantly I think the some of the underlying "user journey's" need to re-thought. Really basic stuff like "from here what is a user most likely to want to do next", and making sure that's 1 or at most 2 clicks away.

The real test for me is can my friends & flatmates who dont know spotify get their head around the app quickly enough that I can hand-over my phone and let them pick a few songs/albums for the playlist. I tried this and there was no chance. It's not impossible though - Apple managed it with the iPod.

To list a few more specifics:

1. Home screen is plain wrong (and ugly). the first heading I see is "Downloaded": wtf? I just want to play some music! For me all your playlists (or recently played music) with a special icon which indicates available offline would suffice. Of course if you are offline only show what's available offline.
2. The current queue is too hard to find. 2 non-obvious clicks away from the home "playlist" screen.
3. Playlist and albums need a play button. It's not intuitive that playing the first song will play the entire thing.
4. It's too easy to accidently stop the current song - most people find it really annoying when a song stops mid-play. A single hit on another song, if something is playing shoud either default to next in queue (and clearly state that's what's happened) or force the user to choose what to do next. Also give them a preference to change the default behaviour - different strokes and all that.
5. Playlist icon is too similar the menu icon.
6. Cant queue a playlist
7. Little square arrow bottom right versus touch & hold - confuses me. They are quite similar but little square arrow menu generally doesn't display what I'm most likely to do next. And I intuitively  hit back to get out of it which closes the app!
8. Search for an album & click on it, get into the album page: how do I now queue it? I have to go back up! Again - every album, playlist & song should have consistent options for "play now" and "queue next".

I do however, have a bit of an apology to make: first time I used this it was on my home theatre PC via a remote control (with up-down-left-right arrow and a go button), not a touch screen -  the experience is better on a touch screen but I think Android HTPCs are growing quick so they are probably worth consideration.

hth and dont forget: drugs are bad, mkay 😉

-ross

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[kwyit_boi]

Everyone just wants to be able to play ANY of their mp3's on the app

[David]

---

@kwyit_boi wrote:

Everyone just wants to be able to play ANY of their mp3's on the app

---

You should be able to sync MP3's from your computer into the Spotify application to playback. Connect both your Android and Computer to the same Wi-Fi network, log into Spotify and your phone should appear under the Devices tab. 

On your computer, create a playlist with these local files. This should appear on your phone as well - Select this playlist to Download and it should transfer these tracks to Spotify. 

[HrKristian]

Another thing bugging me about Spotify is the power consumption, Apollo and Google Play Music uses a fraction of the power Spotify does, why that is I've no idea.

[wesbrad]

My android phone and tablet. will not allow me to make playlist available offling only lets me download. I have one playlist with less than 1000 songs so that isn't the problem. Below shuffle play it says download instead of available offline What am I doing wrong?HELP!!!

[Joe]

@wesbrad "Download" is exactly the same as "Available offline". They just changed the label to confuse you.