Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Spotify has added video podcast suggestions to the House display, under shortcuts.
- Movies now have remark threads and hyperlinks to extra content material, much like YouTube.
- Some customers complain that these new options transfer too removed from the core music expertise.
Spotify made its identify because the be-all and end-all music streaming app, however just lately, the corporate has shifted its methods towards podcasts and video. Now, the corporate is pushing video even more durable by including it to the House display, and it is perhaps a step too far.
Introduced yesterday, the replace places video podcast suggestions close to the highest of the House display, proper under your shortcuts. Observe that this isn’t a easy widget with the newest episode of your favourite podcast, however relatively a discovery feed to seek out new video podcasts “Picked for you.” Spotify claims that “early suggestions exhibits that extra customers are partaking, saving, and liking, telling us that they’re discovering new podcasts they take pleasure in.”
Nevertheless, a number of Reddit customers have bemoaned the replace. Complaints vary from the truth that “Spotify is making an attempt to be an every little thing app now” to difficulties managing display time for teenagers with the shift to video. There’s additionally a really actual danger that the algorithm mistakenly recommends express materials, as the corporate has repeatedly didn’t catch grownup content material reuploaded to the platform.
Spotify’s video-first technique annoys some customers, nevertheless it continues so as to add subscribers.
The video-first technique has additionally prompted Spotify to develop its commenting system with threads. The concept is that creators can work together with their listeners extra simply, however the result’s a UI that appears eerily much like YouTube. Beneath the feedback is one other part that shows hyperlinks to different content material talked about within the episode, together with different podcasts, music, audiobooks, and extra.
Spotify has additionally added a brand new Following tab to the podcasts part on the House display. This shows the newest episodes of podcasts you’re following in chronological order. It replaces the previous New Episodes playlist, nevertheless it seems to have eliminated a couple of key options. For instance, customers report you can now not conceal episodes or mark them completed, which was beforehand doable within the New Episodes playlist.
Regardless of these complaints, Spotify has continued to develop at a file tempo. On the Q1 earnings name earlier this month, the corporate introduced it added 5 million premium subscribers. That’s the most important bounce since 2020, bringing the overall subscriber depend to 268 million.
