Spotify's iOS 14 widget feels incomplete, but that's on Apple
Spotify’s iOS 14 widget feels incomplete, but that’s on Apple
Live home screen widgets are undoubtedly the prize feature in iOS 14 and today it’s Spotify’s turn to showcase a take on the handy new tool.
The music streaming service has debuted a widget that enables users to dive back in to their recently played playlists, artists, albums or podcasts. Currently, there are small and medium widgets available, but no large one at present.
The small widget shows your most recently played item, while the medium widget showcases the five most recent items from your listening history. Once you tap the thumbnail, it’ll take you into the relevant section of the Spotify app. Effectively it just offers a shortcut and little else.
Unfortunately, there are no widgets that offer playback shortcuts, but that’s because Apple isn’t allowing them right now, due to battery considerations. The Android version of the Spotify widget does offer playback controls, so this feels a little incomplete.
Related: iOS 14 features
Another little anomaly pointed out by TechCrunch is the way the widget changes colours to match the thumbnail in question. In order to access the widgets, you’ll need version 8.5.80 of the Spotify app, so that’ll require an update if its available within the App Store (we’re still stuck on 8.5.79 right now).
Once you have the latest version, you can add the widgets by tapping and holding an empty area of the home screen. When everything starts to wiggle, select the + icon in the top left corner, find Spotify on the list and then choose the widgets.
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The launch of the Spotify widget comes as Apple launches its new HomePod mini speaker. There’s a little confusion over whether Spotify is being supported by the Siri-powered speaker. It’s not listed among the third-party services bering offered right now, but participation is voluntary. With that in mind, we’d expect Spotify support for HomePod mini sooner rather than later.
