Spotify refreshed its user interface last year (a great update), and now has further tweaked the home screen (“hub”). The update emphasizes navigation and discovery which the company says will now be simpler:
“We’re constantly working on ways to improve our user experience. Through this latest update, we’ll be rolling out several advancements on the mobile Home hub designed to make finding the audio you love easier and more intuitive. These will roll out to users globally on iOS and Android this month.”
In this Spotify blog post, there are three key features and updates highlighted:
- New “Recently played” section — allows you to “jump back in time and browse up to three months’ worth of listening history”.
- Better surfacing of Podcast content (Premium) — new episodes are now marked with a blue dot, while in progress episodes will show a progress bar.
- More recommendations (Premium) — “a new surface highlighted on top of the Home hub dedicated to discovery-oriented recommendations that are personalized, timely, and reactive to your taste.”
Look for the update soon for both iOS and Android devices.
Spotify: How about an update to playlist management?
Meantime, as a long-time Spotify user and Google Play Music convert, one thing I really wish they would address:
Playlist management
It’s… not great. Unintuitive. Quirky. And basically not how playlist management works on pretty much any other music app. It looks nice, yes, and you can drag and drop tracks however you like. But, spend any amount of time with Spotify playlists and you’ll soon realize that it doesn’t work in typical playlist fashion (for instance, you can’t choose a track and have it “play next”, a very common feature on other apps).
It could be a Sweden thing. I don’t know. That aside, the streaming music platform is still pretty amazing overall.
In any case it’s great to see the Spotify team continue to iterate on the overall look and usability of the app.
PSA- home rippers and streamers (the FLAC type of people like myself): check out the Plexamp music app. Absolutely. Superb.