My iPhone's screen time alert is going to hate this.
Last week, Spotify announced a big update that began gradually rolling out to users worldwide. Once you have the new update, your Spotify mobile app will morph into a more TikTok-esque experience, with screen-filling, creator-made videos assembled in a vertical feed.
SEE ALSO:Spotify unveils a new design that looks just like your FYPTweet may have been deleted
If you've been paying attention to the tech ecosystem for the last few years, this isn't hugely surprising. TikTok is massive and everyone wants a piece of the action. And for Spotify, more people staring at the app for longer periods of time is almost surely a good thing in this engagement-obsessed world. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.
Spotify's big update (which, thankfully, hasn't hit my phone yet) is more than just added inconvenience. It totally misunderstands what Spotify should be for: Listening.
Whenever your phone receives the big Spotify patch, you'll be greeted with a new world of video podcasts and short snippets of things you might want to engage with later. The first and most important point of contention here is that Spotify is the lastplace I'd go if I wanted to watch videos.
I've been a steady Spotify user for more than a decade. It's one of my most-used apps because it's one of the only things that doesn'tcontribute to that dreaded screen time alert. Unlike many apps, which want you to look at them as much as possible, Spotify allowed me to enjoy it passively. I could put on a playlist or a podcast and look away from my phone for a couple of hours while still getting something out of it.
Sure, you have to open the app and feed more screen time to your eyeballs every now and then, but it's a fundamentally different experience from almost anything else you can do on a smartphone. This new version instead wants to be like every other app.
All it takes is a quick glance at social media to see that I'm not the only person who feels this way.
Tweet may have been deleted
I mean, I use Spotify to listen to podcasts, but this next one isn't wrong.
Tweet may have been deleted
And among all the complaints, you'll see plenty of people threatening to leave Spotify for another app.
Tweet may have been deleted
The point here is that I'm not alone. Spotify, for more than a decade, has been about listening. Throw something on, sit back, and drown in your favorite jams or that true crime podcast you can't pull yourself away from. Heck, you can even use it while you sleep!
Of course, you'll still technically be able to do all of that, even with the update. It's important not to get too carried away while hating something new and weird. There's always the possibility that the new Spotify doesn'tmake me recoil in horror as much as I think it might, and I have to account for that.
That said, I don't want to spend my precious time on this planet avoiding digital landmines just to get to my songs and podcasts. This bevy of video content could theoretically interrupt something I'm listening to, or further degrade my precious phone battery. And as I've already laid out, I don't go to Spotify to watch things.
I understand the temptation to imitate TikTok. I really do, even if I'm a cranky old man who doesn't like to use that particular app. But in a time when most of us can agree that we look at our phones too much already, and that doing so probably isn't good for us, it's both bothersome and concerning that Spotify is going in this direction. After all, the hi-fi listening experience the company promised more than two years ago isn't here yet, with this pivot to video seemingly taking priority.
Where does this end? Five years from now, will Spotify even primarily be a music-listening app? I dunno, but Apple Music seems real enticing right now.
TopicsMusicStreaming
(责任编辑：綜合)
Over 82,000 evacuate as Blue Cut fire rapidly spreads in southern California
Google's new Chromecast has a remote and an interface called Google TV
The Queen's country estate is hosting a drive
The best messaging apps not owned by Facebook'The Flying Bum' aircraft crashes during second test flightThis German startup wants to be your bank (without being a bank)
BERLIN -- “That is f*cking clever,” said Ben Floyd, 33, as we sat in a trendy cafe in Be
...[详细]The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is everything the first Fold should've been
If you were to ask me to read the "room" during Samsung's virtual briefing for its new Galaxy Z Fold
...[详细]NASA sends Perseverance rover to Mars in stunning launch
Folks, we're off to Mars again! After a successful launch on Thursday morning at 7:50 a.m. ET, NASA'
...[详细]
Don't let your guard down.Although veteran L.A. Timessports columnist Bill Plaschke had for months v
...[详细]Despite IOC ban, Rio crowds get their political messages across
The Olympics aren't meant to be a place for political expression -- the International Olympic Commit
...[详细]Congresswoman goes viral for proving postmaster can't answer simple postage questions
One would assume that the postmaster general — the chief executive officer of the U.S. Postal
...[详细]Trump is desperate to seem manly. It's hurting us all.
President Donald Trump is a sick man, literally. Nothing he can do will change that until his body r
...[详细]Apple kicks third party speakers and headphones out of its store
Apple is no longer selling any third-party speakers or headphones in its online store. The change, n
...[详细]Tyler, the Creator helped Frank Ocean celebrate 'Blonde' release in a delicious way
The release of Frank Ocean's。 Blonde
。is a cause for celebration to the fans who waited four years fo
...[详细]Olivia Wilde will direct a Sony Marvel movie, possibly featuring spiders
It looks like Sony's web of spider-heroes just caught an incredibly juicy fly. Deadline reports that
...[详细]
