It has been a year since it happened. It was summer, and we were a few months into the pandemic. My housemates and I were lounging in our living space listening to EDM, electronic dance music. A friend asks to queue up a song on my Spotify. Yes, these were the dark ages before Spotify group sessions. What surprised me was that he swiped left to queue a song. If this is a surprise to you, I know exactly how you feel. I couldn’t believe I would tap the ellipsis(...) on a song and then tap the “Add to queue” option. I could have just swiped left.
This is just one example of a recurring problem. When I really enjoy using a product, I want to use every cool feature and see even more features released. If you have felt this way about Spotify, this article is for you, and I want to help you do two things. One is to understand why you haven’t seen certain Spotify features, and the other is to show you new features you might not know about. In the end, I will also share my favorite Spotify features.
You don’t know what you have.
Before we cry wolf about a missing feature, take a step to check if you have it. Spotify gets many feature requests. ‘Many’ here is on the order of their 345 million subscribers. In most cases, someone saw the bug you saw or thought of the feature you’re suggesting. In fact, while writing this, I discovered that Spotify has an elaborate, active community with plenty of content on bugs, features, and betas.
For instance, Crossfade is one feature that is relatively unknown but instantly creates a smoother listening experience. You are better off trying out this feature than reading an explanation. In the Phone app, press the Settings button > Playback > Adjust the CrossFade to 6 seconds. Now enjoy the blended transition from the end of a song to the next one.
If you can’t try this because you use Apple Music, well, that sounds like a you-problem.
It is difficult to add new features without breaking old ones.
So we know there are features you would want but already have, such as Crossfade. However, there are also features you want but shouldn’t have yet. The problem is that it takes trial and error for features to become robust for mass consumption. I learned 2 lessons, among others, as a software engineer last summer. The first lesson is that you build products iteratively. The mantra is “Build, Measure, Learn, Repeat.” This is why Spotify releases betas: to test and iterate on their features. The second lesson? Never underestimate the ability of a ‘simple code change’ to break a lot more than you’re fixing. Here’s the amplified mistake of one intern that depicts why Spotify is careful in releasing new features.
Imagine if Spotify accidentally deleted your favorite playlist?
It’s all in Beta
Spotify faces difficulty investing their limited attention in the features they think will most benefit customers, who often don’t know what they want. All companies face this challenge, but with 300 million active users, this problem is magnified. This is why they release Betas. Could it be that Betas prevent users from accessing certain features? My friends and I unintentionally discovered the answer might be a resounding yes.
My initial hypothesis was that Spotify’s new features were limited by Apple’s ios version releases. I suspected that an iPhone running iOS 14.7 would have newer Spotify features than one on iOS 14.4. This isn’t true. To verify this, my friends and I explored who had received this new Spotify design change:
The previous design, New design
Focus on the background color of the current song
We tried to get this new design by first updating Spotify on iOS 14.4 but had no luck. Then we upgraded to iOS 14.7 and still could not get the new feature. So if you don’t have this new design, I have no idea how you could try to get it. Sometimes, Spotify releases betas for testing on only select customers, and sometimes they roll out features in batches (e.g., by geographic region).
They usually do this for a good reason. One feature that seems to still be under development is Folders. The idea behind folders is that a playlist is a collection of songs and a folder is just a collection of playlists. I don’t recommend using this feature. It looks good on desktop but inelegant on mobile because you can’t set a cover image for folders. It doesn’t look pretty, but the instructions live here.
Please set repeat to be default off!
I might be alone in this frustration, which could be why this bug has not shown up on Spotify’s radar. When I’m in my feelings (or grinding hard on a single task), I sometimes play a song on repeat: it could be Justin Timberlake’s Mirrors or Drake’s Know Yourself. However, when I close the app, start a new session, and tap on a song, it still plays on repeat. I don’t think many users consecutively play different songs on repeat every time they open Spotify. This can be especially frustrating if you forget that repeat is set to on, so you discover this after the song starts replaying.
PS: if you are a Star Wars fan, you will love this feature: Play any song on a Star Wars Album on your Desktop. You can also type ‘THX1138’ into the Spotify search bar and observe the song track. You’re welcome.
My favorite Spotify features
My main takeaway from all these reasons we haven’t seen certain Spotify features is to remain patient. Sometimes it takes a while to roll out a feature. Sometimes, the feature is in development. Sometimes, there is a low demand for that feature. Most importantly, Spotify has transformed our listening experiences from downloading mp3 files from suspicious sites to providing access to over 70 million songs from your device of choice. So it’s perfectly okay that some users don’t get a certain update just yet.
Telling you to be patient must be underwhelming, but we shouldn’t become entitled keyboard warriors who cannot appreciate the features we have. Many people don’t even know about the Blend feature. Premium listeners continue to enjoy stellar recommendations based on playlists or songs. Spotify playlists like Discover Weekly and Daily Mixes have added color to our listening experience. Speaking of color, Spotify’s user experience blows competitors like Apple Music out of the water.
Even so, my favorite feature remains Group sessions. Though, the Star Wars lightsaber effect is up there. What’s your favorite feature?
Waittt the Star Wars thing is so cool!! I didn’t know about that lol. @Spotify pls pay this man.