[iOS] Now Playing UI no longer changes color for local files.

[kyleseven]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

iPhone 12 mini

Operating System

iOS 14.7.1

My Question or Issue

When playing a song, the UI picks a color from the album art and makes that the background. This still works for normal Spotify songs but has recently stopped working for local files.

Already tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Seems to be a result of a recent update.

Image of Spotify Song - Blue background from the album art.

Image of Local Files Song - Gray background; All local files are like this regardless of album art.

[CarlosE]

Hi there @kyleseven,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and welcome!

Since the Local files are different from the files from Spotify, they may interact differently with the display of the app. We appreciate your feedback on this matter and we'll make sure to pass it on to the right folks, as we always strive to improve the app and the overall experience.

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

Cheers 🙂

[RafalR]

I have the same effect — no color tint in playback background for my loval files. They used to utilize the same nice algorithm as any streaming songs.

The background is dependent only on embedded artwork which is here, because it’s shown. So yes, local files are „different” from streaming ones. But not in the aspect on which rhe background depends. It almost looks as another „small step” to discourage users from local files usage. Their use is already a very basic implementation, or should I say „a pain in the ass”, compared to a flawless cloud-based solution in Apple Music.

Can we get an answer — is it a deliberate discrimination of local file users?

[Alex]

Hi @RafalR,

Thanks for the reply.

This depends largely on the local file metadata, filetype and the device used. 

Spotify does not aim to discriminate it's users in any way and we're sorry to hear that you feel this way about the current app release. As @CarlosE has said, we've passed your feedback to the development team who are working on improving the app.

Hope you find this answer helpful. Don't hesitate to reach out again if you have questions.

[RafalR]

Alex, maybe I used too strong word -- saying "discrimination" of local file users, sorry for that. Sticking to the bare facts:

- in previous Spotify iOS version the playback background was picking a color for ANY song -- straming and local

- in current version I see that there was a sligt modification of the background color-picking algorithm, as I see a bit different background colors for the albums I'm playing often. it might be a side-effect that the background for local files stopped to be colored at all, using a bare, black background for them. It happens for ALL local files, I can't imagine how their metadata could be influencing this.

If it was not intended (I don't dare to think it was) then I guess that you will admit it's a BUG, as it's the definition of a bug -- unintended behavior of software, often a  side-effect of some other changes in related area (and there was a change of background color algoritm). And if it's a bug, then I can't imagine you wouldn't like to fix it. I also can't imagine it is a deliberate design decision -- not to have color background for local files, as it's against the overall Spotify UI design.

[cirava]

Yeah, I'm having the same exact issue. Which just makes me sad, especially with the new UI update where the automatically picked color is shown a lot more.

[kyleseven · Accepted solution]

The issue seems to be fixed for me on version 8.6.55, which released today. 

 

[RafalR]

Indeed! Thanks to you for raising this issue and thanks to Spotify for a quick fix!

[Elena]

Hey there @kyleseven and @RafalR,

Thank you for reaching out on the Community.

We're very happy to hear the latest update has resolved the issue for you. It's always the best thing to do - to keep your apps rocking on the latest versions!

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

[RafalR]

Elena, your help is very appreciated! Thanks again!