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Spotify for Android removes its homescreen widget in latest update

One differentiating point of Android as a platform is the ability to use widgets on the homescreen. In its latest update, though, Spotify has removed the homescreen widget from its Android app.

Spotify usually isn’t all that quick to adopt new Android features, but this latest change is a bit of a head-scratcher. Widgets haven’t exactly been a huge focus over the past few years, but they’re still a useful feature that a lot of people use.

Still, Spotify for Android version 8.5 has removed the widget completely. If you still had the widget enabled, it won’t immediately go away, but it won’t be functional following this update. In a support post, Spotify explains that it “retired” the homescreen widget in favor of the playback notification that’s already built into Android (which Spotify has broken before). It’s unclear if there was further motivation for removing the widget.

Spotify’s Android widget before it was removed

This change has been met with negative feedback from the community as a whole. In a follow-up comment, a Spotify Moderator says that the company is “hearing” the community’s backlash and left a link to vote for a “new idea” of bringing the widget back. Even though over 1,000 users have voted on that idea, Spotify has dismissed it saying that they don’t have “any immediate plans to reintroduce.”

Notably, most other music apps on Android offers this feature. Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, and others have a widget, although Google’s own YouTube Music oddly lacks the common feature (although it’s in the works).

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