Why does changing devices from laptop to phone on laptop require premium?

[Coggleton]

So, looking at my laptop's spotify app I noticed that to change my device from my laptop to my phone, apparently I needed Premium. But on my phone I was able to change it without any problem. What's up with that?

[Yordan]

Hi @Coggleton!

What's causing this is the fact that the mobile app doesn't support on demand listening for Free users. This, however, is possible on the desktop app, so in order to maintain a balance between the two, Spotify Connect allows Free users to control the music from their phone while listening on their desktop, but not the other way around.

Hope this clears things up. The Community is always here if there's anything else you need assistance with.

Cheers!

[Coggleton]

Huh, odd; cause around the time of posting, I had started a song on my laptop and managed to switch to my phone to resume playing. I'm not sure if it had just transitioned over that song or if I had forgotten something, but I do remember that on one of the devices it said "You can't switch devices" but on the other one I was able to do so.