New Windows menu style can cause severe flicker/flashing

[n0000]

My Question or Issue: New Windows menu style can cause severe flicker/flashing

When opening any submenus of the main right-click menu (with add to playlist, remove, add to queue etc) such as when adding to a playlist, if the user has right clicked in a specific central location, then the sub menu will repeatedly redraw itself,  alternating to the right and left of the main right click menu.

I think this is dangerous and is severe enough it could cause an epileptic fit in people who are susceptible.

See video for an example (eplilepsy warning, do not look at the video if you suffer from epilepsy).

To reproduce:

- Do not have spotify full screen, you can easily replicate by docking spotify to just half of your screen

- Go to a playlist

- Right click towards both the right and left of a song row and mouse over add to playlist. Isolate the point along the row where the submenu will instead display on the opposite side

- Right click in the general area of the crossover and hover over any submenu (ie add to playlist again) to see the effect

While the above sounds contrived, it is easy enough to do accidentally that I think this is an issue, especially with how often this action is performed. I believe this will also be the same for any menu with submenus elsewhere in the app however have not tested. This issue could also feasibly be present on other platforms.

Please note that the video doesn't do it justice due to the framerate and the effect is much more severe when you replicate.

Possible fixes:

a. Rate limit the redrawing of this menu

b. Identify what causes the menu to be redrawn (is it sensing overlap with the screen edge?) and enforce that it stays open on the side with more room once opened rather than testing for location again

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Windows

Version

1.2.40.599.g606b7f29

[OscarDC]

Hey @n0000,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and welcome.

We tried to replicate the issue by following the steps you mentioned, but the menu always displays at the right side of the track. So in this case, since this could be related to an outdated version of the app, we'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall by following the steps mentioned in this article to see if it makes any difference.

It would also be great if you could have someone log in with their account on your device - such as a friend or a family member, to see if they can replicate the same behavior. This will help us understand if it could be account-related or not.

Lastly, include in your next response the OS version of your computer to continue investigating this case.

We'll be on the lookout. 

[n0000]

Hi Oscar,

Windows 11 23H2

Updated (latest available) Spotify version: 1.2.40.599.g606b7f29

Screen resolution is 2560x1440 in case that makes a difference.

I've reconfirmed that it's still possible and also reproduced on another system.

I've attached another video of it as well as an example of how to force the menu to open on either side (to force it to open on the left, click towards the right side of the row and to force it to open on the right, click towards the left). The bug will trigger when you find the crossover spot.

It can be quite hard to find the spot on smaller screens, but it is there.

Thanks for looking in to this : )

[Vasil]

Hey @n0000,

Thank you for the clarification!
We managed to reproduce the issue and it's been reported backstage 🙂
Keep your app up to date and let us know if anything else comes up in the meantime.

Thanks for helping us out make the app better! We'll let you know as soon as there's any development on our ends 🙌🏼