Galaxy Flip 5 Cover Screen Behaviour Changed [Working in Old Version - 8.8.80.599]

[Sol_3]

The behaviour of Spotify on the small screen on the flip 5 has been changed recently, and due to this I have lost a lot of useful functionality like shuffle, lyrics, view queue, etc.

This was all fine when the phone first released and the app just scaled down to fit the screen. It all functioned perfectly, since an update however, this has all been lost and the offering is much less useful than even the built in media controls. 

Please can this be reverted? 

One UI Version: 6
Android version: 14

Spotify Version: 8.9.10.616

[Sol_3]

Hi Yordan,

Thanks, yeah it's an issue isolated to small screens. And not many of these exist yet, I agree. I don't like Samsung as a company, so I won't be contacting them about an issue that isn't on them. 

What's strange is that this was working perfectly fine before. So all I was asking was for the older layout to be considered for smaller screens going forward. 

If you're saying you're not interested in handling the small screen case that's fine and I'd rather you say that to us so we can accept that as the answer. But my retort would be that these screen sizes will only become more prevelant in the future (with more flip devices and not just Samsung), and the widget is unique to only Samsung and does still not solve any of the issues mentioned above. So I'd say your frontend dev team should at least put it on the backlog for future improvement work at a low priority.

This would solve the issue for everyone (not just Samsung users) and would reduce the total amount of overall work for maintaining several "widgets" for each platform/manufacturer OS. 

[MagnusDrac0 · Accepted solution]

Yordan,

If I'm being honest I just downgraded the Spotify app to a version from October 2023, and the cover screen widget using Goodlock (the samsung app to use 3rd party apps) and everything works as it did perfectly, so that's how I know it's something on Spotify's end. I really didnt want to wait any longer for an update since it's already been months with having a broken UI and it gets tedious having to always open my phone to access the queue, see what songs will play, or even see the lyrics. With Spotify 8.8.80.599, I have access to the queue, lyrics, artist information, etc., that I didn't have access to since November 2023. I'm up to date with every update, including Goodlock and One UI, so yeah it was just a spotify update that completely messed with the Goodlock app behavior. 

 

[Sol_3]

Thanks for this MagnusDrac0, can you point us to where you got the old APK? I would also like to downgrade.

[Johnny221]

I'd also like to downgrade!

[MagnusDrac0]

For sure! If you google Spotify APK, one of the first results should be from a site called UpToDown. From there, click on the button that says Older Versions, and find the one I'm using (its from October 20, 2023). Once you have it downloaded, go through Google Play to uninstall Spotify, tap the three dots on the top right and click "Disable Auto-Update." Then, if you need to allow Chrome to install an APK file, do so. Finally, with the Older Spotify installed, just log in with your account and the cover screen ui should work and look like it did before.

[Sol_3]

Perfect, thanks for confirming, this was the site I found too. Will report back here, thanks again for providing the functional version number! 🙂

[MagnusDrac0]

I replied to Sol_3 with how to do it! Definitely a bit of a process, but I like being able to control everything again.

[Sol_3]

Working perfectly, thanks MagnusDrac0. 👍

@Yordan hopefully this demonstrates Spotify is more than able to fix the issue in a future version. This is how I was using it before an upgrade removed this functionality.

For now I won't be upgrading.

[MagnusDrac0]

You're welcome Sol! Glad it worked.

[Johnny221]

Works perfectly, thank you very much mate! 

[Yordan]

I'm glad you've found a working alternative @MagnusDrac0, thanks for sharing. Still, I'd like to mention that while older versions of the app might do the trick for now, keep in mind they aren't hosted on the official Spotify website and thus we cannot guarantee that they support the latest security patches and updates.

While we're unable to provide an ETA for a fix at this time, this will remain in our tech folks' backlog, so your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Once again, thank you for your assistance. Hopefully it won't be too long before the issue is resolved.

Cheers!