What is your opinion on the new like and dislike button in Spotify?

I pay for Spotify and do not like the pop ups for podcasts and now audiobooks. I really do not like how they ruined the shuffle button and now the ugly check mark instead of the heart. I am not fond of the ui at all and will start looking at other alternatives. Imo, Spotify has gone downhill. I miss the old time Spotify.

I HATE the shuffle button on Spotify. It used to be better. I have a Playlist that I used to listen to with the 'enhanced' shuffle. Spotify would add similar songs into the queue. It was nice. Now Spotify just plays the same 20 songs or so, over and over again. My Playlist has over 200 songs without even adding the variety into the queue. I've started actively removing songs because they are all I hear. This isn't how listening to music should work.
- Oh, I noticed that too. I have over 800 songs in my playlist and Spotify would play about 10 of them in a specific order even though shuffle was enabled. I found an app to fix that for me https://shuffle.virock.org
I also really dislike the pop-ups and “recommendations” that I have no interest in. It feels like I’m being advertised to when I’m specifically already paying, in part to remove ads.

That, along with their incessant and poorly communicated A/B UI testing, is making me more and more frustrated. Don’t get me wrong, the price for a Duo membership is excellent for the amount of music available, but I have started to build out my own collection that I can stream through Plex as a backup, since I expect their platform to only get worse over time
Yes! The shuffle button! Every time I want to shuffle/unshuffle a playlist, it seemingly has to toggle through the smart shuffle bullshit first, which disables the button and shows a loading icon (which can be 5+ seconds on a mobile connection) while it finds awful songs to inject into my playlist.

Oh how I wish there was a way to disable it
- Turn off autoplay similar content in settings.
I switched to TIDAL. Same price, and they pay the artists better per stream.
- Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into Tidal.
My shuffle button is still a shuffle button, and the heart is still a heart. I also never get popups, but I also pay for it, so if you don't maybe that's why?
- I pay for premium. Unfortunately, I get full screen pop ups Spotify refers to as "sponsered suggestions". Ranging from a survey, podcasts, audiobooks, family plans, new artists they want me to like, etc.
  
  To me, they are irritating and as a monthly subscriber, I should not have them. I am happy they do not plauge you. I consider you very lucky.

I dislike all the algorithms being pushed on Spotify. I just want to listen to albums and that's it.

The radio function is nice in theory, but it tries too hard to guess what I want to listen to to the point where it felt like any radio I played ended up being variations of the same thing. It is just not a good way to discover new music in my experience.

These days I have cancelled my subscription in favour of actual radio. Fip.fr is brilliant.

I would really appreciate a configurable Radio playlist. Just a slider from "very similar" to "here be dragons" would do.

Actually, I noticed exactly what you're describing too. There are like 3-4 clusters of artists that Spotify thinks I love, and that's it. Unless I'm actively searching for something else.
- This was old Slacker Radio. You could create a station with any number of artists and then tweak it to discover new artists or just listen to ones you know.
I agree and it's getting to the point where it's almost unusable for me too.

Every "Spotify" playlist which is what they shove down your throat in every search consists of the same few dozen songs that it thinks I want to listen to. Well if I wanted to listen to the same EDM playlist I've already created for myself, I would Spotify. I have to search for specific albums to get any value from the service these days, but that's difficult when it doesn't really introduce me to any new music.
This is why I switch to Tidal + Plex. It allows you to just maintain a library and listen to albums while keeping the algorithm recommendations out of the way.
- Good to know, thanks! I tried it out back when it was known as Wimp, but jumped off the wagon during all the controversies. I'd really rather not use anything owned by Jack Dorsey, but I might be a bit too principled for my own good haha
I know what you mean with the radio function I would also love if it would give me something similar to the song i was listening to not the stuff I usually listen to
- clicking "go to song radio" does that... ?

I see the plus, but where is the minus button you mentioned?

If you press the 3 dots in top right you'll get a bunch more buttons including the " - hide this song" one.
Sorry it was a bad screenshot I changed it to a better one

For context the old one was that one
- Ouu, fairphone earbuds? Slayy
Im guessing the button changes to a minus when clicked.
- The button likes the song when clicked, it just fills in. You have to go to the menu to get to the minus button

I don't use spotify, and I thought those are volume buttons, and did not understand where are the like and dislike buttons until I read the post. I think this is just a dumb design choice.

That kinda looks like volume control lmao.

Heart or even thumb icons for likes and dislikes are acceptable. This looks stupid like if it belongs to c/assholedesign

My app only has the plus currently. I think it's a dumb change. The type of change you make because you need to change something. Nobody that is competent enough to use a smart phone app would see any benefit from it being changed to a plus and as others have pointed out.. it's a music app, plus and minus are usually associated with volume.

I didn't know Spotify changed this. I opened up the app, and sure enough it popped up with "the heart is now a plus."

Yeah, I don't like it. Just a random plus sign on the "now playing" screen isn't obvious what it does. Yes, the app told me, but that only appears once.

I wonder if we can complain and get them to change it back.

Also it now takes multiple taps to remove something from my liked songs.

I completely hate the new "+" symbol, the heart was so easy to understand

Yeah, as someone who dropped Spotify awhile ago, I sat there staring at it wondering what like button they were talking about. Ngl all the terrible UI updates over the years were a good part of me switching away from it. So many companies refuse to leave well enough alone

YT Music does it best:

yea I also used yt music for over 2 years but it doesn't work on a de-googled phone. So I switch to spotify because they doesn't require google play services. One of the things I miss are the in the client integrated music videos on my secondary display
- Have you tried MicroG?

It's pretty misleading if your not familiar with the interface, isn't it?

The plus to me signifies that the song will be added to a playlist and personally, I'd be pretty confused if it doesn't bring up a prompt to choose said playlist. The minus is even more confusing in that context.

It is some kind of what you said. If you press the + button again you get a menu to add the song to a playlist. Another point that I missed is that the "like" button also adds the song to your favorite list.
- That's kinda like double-mapping a button on a controller, yeah you get used to it but it just makes it more complicated IMO.
  
  Tidal still has the heart and hides away the option to add to playlist in a hamburger menu, which adds one tap but personally, I use the heart function way more often so I don't really mind.

Don’t use Spotify and it took me a while to even find the mentioned buttons in the screenshot. Looks like either volume controls or add/remove from playlist. Better would be thumbs up/down.

What's wrong with just a thumbs up and thumbs down?

There's no functional difference between +/- and 👍/👎.
- So what is the result of 5👍2?
- There are definitely differences. + And - imply addition and subtraction, while 👍👎 imply pleasure and displeasure, or agreement and disagreement. The + and - in this context is quite ambiguous, because it could mean volume up/down, or adding or subtracting the song from a playlist for example. Those would be my first guesses without context I think. Color coding them would help, because it would give more weight to the action, but I think the iconography is still overly ambiguous compared to other options. Source: am professional designer.
Because negative feelings don’t belong anywhere near a social product…. Just look at what YouTube and Facebook did

Don't use Spotify much and I never would have guessed those were like and dislike.

They aren't. The plus adds the song to a playlist, by default the liked songs-list (a second tap on the plus lets you change which list it goes to). The minus is a "don't recommend this"-button.

Press it once to add to Liked. Press it again to add to another playlist. Not great, not terrible.

I just read through all the top-level replies to this post, and you’re the only one that actually understands this change. They didn’t just change the icon, they added new functionality.

Your description isn’t quite complete, though. Pressing it once adds to the playlist you most recently added to. Basically, it remembers which playlist you last added a song to, so if you’re listening to a radio station that matches one of your playlists vibes, it makes it really easy to add the songs as they play.

This new functionality perfectly matches my “flow” of music collection, since I add to separate playlists instead of to Liked. This feature changes nothing if you only ever add to Liked.

So basically, everyone in this post is complaining about a feature Spotify added that genuinely enhances my experience and is only a minor visual change for everyone else.

I see the plus in a circle symbol. What are you adding the track to? Some sort of list?

I don't see a minus in that screenshot.

The plus is adding to liked songs playlist

I’m just annoyed that it replaces the repeat and shuffle buttons, but only sometimes.

TBH I didnt though about it but yea it's now gone
- Seems to be only if you’re on a recommendation based playlist like discover weekly or release radar

Looks worse, does the same thing however so whatever. Spotify once again focusing on the wrong things. Prime enshittification There are songs uploaded with the wrong name that I've reported 8-ish years ago that have still not been fixed. Every now and then I'll get a notification for a new release from an artist that I've never listened to because they share a name with an artist that I'm following. That thing doesn't need fixing, nah...changing the heart button, that's real stuff

songs uploaded with the wrong name...

Also lyrics showing for music without lyrics....smh
Prime enshittification

Enshittification does not mean a service getting worse in your opinion, it has a narrower definition - the practice of luring in users with an unusually good deal, many times subsidized by VC money, and then when you've got enough users hooked, you improve your bottom line at the expense of the quality of the service.

If you can show that this is something that is improving the bottom line at the expense of the service, then it would be enshittification, but I really don't think you can.
- They've made the free version worse and worse and have added more and more useless features to the paid version. Maybe it's not enshittification in the strictest of terms, but it's not far.(also lol, we're talking about a 1 year old term as if it's super established)

Can you point out the minus for grandpa here who can't see for shit apparently?

- feels like the clearer icons if I just go on your text description. More of this, less of that. Heart always to me felt too much, like do I really love this song? So I only hearted very few songs, and only blocked even fewer, because that's also very harsh feeling. So I prefer this, if the UI is good? But I can't really tell from the image

The " - hide this song" button is hidden with all the other options like add to queue, view album/artist, etc. For me it's the 3 dots in the top right
There is none, I don't think the screenshots are of the new design OP talks about. I also checked in my app, and I have either a +/- (well I have a + in a circle that adds songs to playlists) nor a 👍 or 👎 or anything.

I think that's in fact supposed to be the joke, anyways. That Spotify does not have a like/dislike button.
- The minus only shows up for recommendations/auto-generated things, to allow for signals that this is not the stuff you want to listen to.
  
  It wouldn't make sense to have it in for example your liked songs, as those are curated by yourself, instead of being curated algorithmically.

My app doesn't have this , but it also doesn't have a like button anymore. The only button is a checkmark to add the song to a playlist. Please spotify, change it back!!!! The only reason I pay for spotify is for conveniance. If spotify stops being 14 bucks more conveniant than piracy I will happily switch.

It turns into a checkmark as soon as you have the song in your playlists. For new songs, its just a plus button (at least for me)

Funny enough, people had the same reaction when Spotify changed the plus button to a heart a few years ago

It was once already a plus?
- Yes, 6 or 7 years ago, when they introduced podcasts. People on reddit were saying that the heart was bad, too childish, too instagram-like, so it's kinda silly to see the same demographic defend the heart now. I guess people realky hate change

You get used to it, it has been like this on iOS for quite a while already.

I prefer it this way. I like the function of the double tap open up a prompt to choose a playlist, feels more convenient. As for the heart vs plus button, i like the symbology of the plus button more, but that's personal preference.

A flaw that I heard many times in this teard is that it looks like a volume button
- I can see that. Not something that crossed my mind first time I saw it, but makes senses

I'm a person that likes it when the UI is switched up a bit every now and then to bring some fresh air to an old app.

This case I absolutely don't care.

I used to agree wholeheartedly, but I'm the last 3-5 years I've come to absolutely dread UI changes. I can't think of a website or service that I use that's gotten better. They (reddit, youtube, facebook or whatever) take away functions and make it easier to herd users the way they want them.

Fairphone 🤝

Same opinion for all of Spotify: it's shit

Good thing I don't use Spotify.

Get your downvotes ready.

Eh, neither of your screenshot shows what you are talking about, tbh.

I don't use Spotify anymore, because paying means less quality for me. But at first I thought this was a joke, because I couldn't find the dislike (not that it ever did sth in Spotify)

Do you hate grammar and spelling? Reading your text hurts.

Heart*
Liking*
Disliking*
My*

and use punctuation. It's like you've made a conscious effort to make it really bad.

You started a sentence with a lower case 'and'. It's like you've made a conscious effort to be a dick.
Sorry I'm not a English is not my native language. I changed it up so it isn't that bad