[Desktop][Podcasts] Disable podcast videos

[sloshy_]

When you try to play a podcast that also has video on desktop, there is no option to disable it and only play audio.  This is unnecessary for me, because I do other things while listening to podcasts.  It also introduces unnecessary strain on my internet connection to stream video that I won't watch, as well as strain on my hardware trying to decode the video.  Much like the "disable canvas" option on mobile, I feel like it would be beneficial to have a "disable videos" on desktop.

[Mirzor]

Please add this this to mobile (Android) aswell. This videos are killing my phone plan by sucking too much internet. I love to listen to podcasts but I don't need the video on cellular data!

[Katerina]

Updated on 2020-06-24

Hello and thanks for bringing your feedback to the Idea Exchange. We've marked this as a new idea.

There's also a similar idea about disabling videos in playlists with mixed content that you can also support here.

Spotify Staff will look into this idea once it reaches the necessary amount of votes. More information about how the Spotify Idea Exchange works can be found here.

[cyangorilla]

This is an excellent idea for a much needed feature, specially as the JRE Podcast is coming in both Audio and Video format in September and having an option to disable the video would be ideal (3hrs of 1080p video streaming unnecessarily? No, thanks.)

I was listening normally yesterday and much to my surprise, everything started slowing down, and the podcast that had just started begun to sound "choppy". That's when I noticed there was an unnecessary video playing in the app, without an option to turn it off. It's a very strange thing to add to an audio platform to a primarily audio-exclusive format.

[drift_away]

This forced feature also makes podcasts not even work for mobile, it’s literally so stupid!

[mrtelle]

Definitely agree, the video element of podcasts should be optional. It eats into data much faster, seems to keep the screen on and stop the podcast from playing once the screen turns off. This seems very contrary to Spotify's core functionality (at least as far as Podcasts are concerned). I know I personally won't be downloading or playing any podcasts with video components until I have the option to resume using the app in the manner I've enjoyed for years. 

[1242409358]

I, like most users listen to Spotify either in the car when I worked at an office, or more recently now in the background when working from home. 

Since this new "feature" has been  implemented the podcasts that I enjoy listening to have become choppy to the point of not working. Also with many people working from home, with video calls and  other calls over the internet, this is an unnecessary bandwidth hog. 

I hope you will consider giving us the option to enable or disable video in a future update  and not have it forced.   

[Scroughan]

I've yet to encounter the issue regarding audio becoming choppy while listening to a podcast (the episodes I'm currently listening to don't seem to support video). I also mostly listen to Spotify while driving so an embedded video is just useless to me.

That being said I don't understand why an audio platform would think this is something their users want. If I want to watch a video version of a podcast there's much better ways for me to do that.

The simple solution would to enable us as users to decide whether or not to use this 'feature' rather than force it upon us or just remove it entirely.

[brandondrury]

I did not sign up for podcast videos.  I don't want to use the bandwidth.  I don't want the video files taking up space on my phone.  I don't want the power consumption of videos.  I don't want the heat generated.  I don't want the environmental impact.  Why on Earth would you assume I want video by default on a podcast?  Why would you not offer a single playlist option AT ALL in the settings menu?  Why would you not give users the option to disable videos the second the Podcasts "functionality" was added to the Spotify app?

Worst off, Spotify continually shows off when playing back video podcasts.  This is a real problem when I run or when I'm driving.  Your service is less reliable because of this unwanted feature you've forced on us.

[alexvasser24]

please do this! put it in the 3 dot menu right beside the play/pause menu. i exclusively listen to podcasts on the road (i’m a delivery driver) and i ended up running out of data because the video was playing and i had no idea. (or alternatively, could we have the option to download the video as well?) ❤️

[Azzaden]

I had to sign in just to write this.

I downloaded the new JRE episodes on WIFI, to save my mobile data ofc. Imagine my surprise when I see that Spotify has used over 400mb streaming the video to my phone?!

If you download the episode using Wifi and then try to play offline, with mobile data turned off for Spotify it won't even play! Spotify are essentially making it necessary to stream the video alongside the audio. A huge mistake in my opinion.

There should be an AUDIO ONLY option for playing/downloading podcasts on Spotify. It seems like such an obvious feature to have on this platform. For now, I'll stick to downloading and listening to AUDIO only podcasts as the ones with video are using my mobile data in the background.