Spotify swaps slide-out navigation for a bottom bar in its latest Android beta update

Android apps have slowly been adopting bottom bars in their UI since the option was added to Google’s Material Design spec last year. Apps like Google+ and Google Photos have been prime examples of the design for a while, but recently Spotify has added the same UI to its Android application.

Previously the Spotify app used the classic slide-out navigation menu to access portions of the app such as playlists, a user’s music library, and the various other portions of the app. All of those same options are still available, they’ve just been moved to the bottom of the display and are visible at all times. This same change was applied to the iOS version of the app back in May. A few other miscellaneous UI changes come within this update, but nothing near as drastic as the bottom bar.

For many Android users this change will come as a mixed bag. While it offers easier access to commonly used portions of the app, it also uses a method of navigation that most Android apps do not, so it’ll definitely take some getting used to. One thing worth noting is that the settings option has been moved to the “Your Library” tab from its previous location at the bottom of the slide-out menu.

For now this change is limited to the beta version of the Spotify app, but they should eventually roll out to the main app in a few weeks.