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iPhone app updated – background listening arrives!
Easily the most requested feature for our iPhone app since it launched last September has been the ability to listen to music while surfing the web, using Facebook, etc. Up until now this hasn’t been possible but with Apple’s release of iOS 4 you’re able to use multiple apps at the same time, including Spotify.
Along with this great feature we managed to squeeze in a few more nice additions into this update, the full release contains:
- iOS 4 multitasking! Play Spotify tracks while doing other things with your phone. NOTE: Only iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4 and iPod Touch (3rd generation) support multitasking.
- Use the headset remote and lockscreen buttons to control Spotify playback
- “What’s new” tab has been added showing you newly released albums, the top 100 tracks in your country, and the social feed
- Share tracks and albums to your Spotify friends!
- Battery consumption is improved when the app is in the foreground or paused.
Enjoy.
112 responses to “iPhone app updated – background listening arrives!”
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Nice! Now the iPhone really got usefull...
My phone is complete, but does this mean the app is always switched?
switched on*?
Does it still require a subscription?
Any chance of the next update making it a universal app so it looks better when viewed on an iPad?
@p33b The app only stays running if its actually playing music of course. If you don't have anything playing your iPhone will quit the app after either 10 minutes or sooner if it needs more resources. @danielsamuels Yes it does, you should subscribe. This feature makes the whole Spotify experience a perfect one. You won't regret it.
@johnskelton While I can't be sure, I can only imagine the next logical thing for the team to do would be to release a universal version. I don't know what their roadmap looks like but I'd be surprised if this wasn't at the top of the todo list. There have been several mockups made, and I've seen snaps of the team's iPads arriving (this may be for their testing or because they're all Apple nuts?!)
"managed to squeeze in a few more additions" Squeeze is exactly the right word for what you guys are doing. Come on! Dosen't anybody at the spotify office have an iPhone 3G? The application is sluggish as hell. The first thing the app did was to crash. No, I do not have a jailbraked device, the phone is wiped and reinstalled with iOS4 just a week ago. So please, for the sake of your customers, take a good look at the code in your app and optimize to work for all iPhones!
This made Spotify the ONE app to play music on the iPhone! But please, did you have to put in that annoying audible que when changing songs via the handsfree remote? That blipping sound is driving me nuts already!
Cheers Chris, good to know it's at least being considered.
@jtswe I've tried this on a 3G without problems, that said I'm running it on my 3GS with no hiccups at all. Maybe mail the support guys and see if they have any tips to help you out. @frippz As far as I know this isn't Spotify making the noise but part of iOS4, I only say that as it's the same "shuffle" sound thats made when you shake to change track in iPod.app. It also chimes this note when pausing the track using the app-switching dock controls.
Awesome Next thing I'd like to see is when you hold a track - the contextual menu should appear with the options to 'Share', 'Add to playlist' and 'queue' - would make things much easier and would allow organisation without actually having to play the song. And then, of course, a fully functional library with 'Artists', 'Albums' and 'Songs' - to finally replace the iPod app :)
@chrisrowe Well that's the thing. The iPhone 3GS does have a much better processor and ram than the iPhone 3G. I can understand that the app probably runs smooth on the 3GS and iPhone4. But for us guys and gals who still "only" has an iPhone 3G it runs, as said, sluggish, really sluggish.
Fantastic update! What I've been waiting for for so long... great work :) Runs beautifully on iPhone 4 - the only thing is that the main icon and the buttons in the app still need updating to higher resolution to support the new Retina Displays as they all look very jagged at the moment.
Thanks for the fabulous update! :) In addition to multitasking, I was really hoping for the "what's new" and "top tracks" feature. Right now I can see only top 10 tracks instead of a 100, though. Should the app really show 100 tracks?
@jtswe You're right, the 3G is almost exactly half as powerful as the 3GS but even so that shouldn't effect an app like Spotify, not to the extent you're mentioning anyway. Based on my experiences and what I've read I get the feeling iOS4 itself isn't particularly optimized in favour of the 3G so I suspect it's the OS is as much to blame if not more than the Spotify app, maybe there will be some hope when 4.1 is released, or maybe it's Apples subtle way to get people to upgrade their handsets.
That's great for everyone that doesn't have an iPhone 3G. It still is sluggish, crashes, and very juttery, even on the iOS4. However, why have you guys STILL not added the most simple of functions that would benefit ever - the ability to sort the tracks on your mobile by artist/song/alphabetically? When you have a playlist of over 1,000 songs, it makes it SO hard to find what you're looking for.
Verg good update! A question: can i see more than just THE top 10 of THE top 100? And more new music? Snotter feature i would like (also for THE desktop app) is add albums to playlists (not THE tracks but THE album)
@mantisinc123 You're right things can get hard to find in big playlists but I'm not sure there is room for sorting on a screen the size of the iPhones, I mean not even the stock iPod app has sorting like that. Don't forget you can scroll to the top of a list and then up a bit more to reveal a search box, that'll make finding what you're after in a playlist a lot faster.
And I agree with other 3G users - the app runs unbelievably slowly. Surely it can be optimised to run faster on the 3G? How come other apps can make complicated apps that run really smoothly on the 3G - like Opera - but Spotify can't? :(
Spotify works really well on my iPod 2nd gen (iPhone 3G internals). Just a shame about the lack of multitasking but Apple are to blame for that...
@chrisrowe Even if the sort function was in the settings menu or something, giving you the option to see your tracks displayed alphabetically, by artist, etc. The IDEAL format, would be to have them displayed like the iPod - but artists with songs inside each artist folder. Then, this app would be pretty much complete.
@chrisrowe Well the thing is that my iPhone 3G is running smoother than ever. Almost as smooth as it did back in the iPhone OS 2 days. :) The iOS4 is working like a charm so I don't think the OS is to blame. However I still think they need to look through their code since the app still crashes alot.
@ruudschilders It's only the top 10 for the time being but I'm sure they'll increase this with time. Both the iPhone and desktop app allow you to add whole albums to playlists; in the iPhone app tap the 3 dots to expand the menu and select "Save to playlist", on the desktop you can drag the album to a playlist or right-click an albums title or cover and select "Save To"
Why can't I edit my playlist anymore?
@macki You can, it's the little pencil icon up towards the top right. That'll let you reorder and remove tracks.
With add album i meant to see it as à sub-folder within THE playlist so with 10 albums in à playlist i don't just see 200 tracks but 10 albums Sorry for THE capitalized THE, my iPhone is set to Dutch
What macki means is rearrange THE playlists. Not THE tracks in THE playlists
Thanks for the great update. Looking forward to an iPad version soon!
Does anybody know why this isn't working on my 3Gs, updated app and still fades out when I exit? Ta!
You guys rock! Good job!
Very good update Spotify team however since this update playback no longer resumes after a phone call has ended which it did before and also does on android version. What would also be nice is the ability to view friends playlists on the mobile app.
Great work! Now it's just the iPad version missing...
great update, but it keeps crashing when i tap on "what's new" :-(
Awesome work ! Spotify rocks even more than before ! Congrats to the developers ! I can even control the app through my iHome dock/remote now ! Just a question: any chance I might be able to control it with my iPod car kit ? (I can control/play my iPod iPhone playlists with it... It would be great to be able to navigate through Spotify playlists through my car interface... I guess this is not totally up to Spotify but maybe an iOS limitation/feature) It seems iOS 4 uses the last music app used as its default (if iPod was last used then the lock screen buttons will control the iPod app / if Spotify was last used then Spotify will be controlled)... I wonder if it does the same with displaying playlists on third party devices such as car kits etc...
This works flawless with my iPhone 4, this app almost complete my phone, just need the new Skype hopefully with videochat. Thanks again Spotify!
There. All my iTunes music purged from the phone. Bye bye. Great work!
@j_rissanen and chrisrowe, you can view more than the top 10 tracks, just not all together. Select a track from the "whats new", then as it starts to play you can finger swipe/sideways scroll through the other tracks, up to track 100.
AMAZING update guys. Background audio support was the one thing that I waiting for to fully justify the premium subscription. One small question... I don't know if it is possible, but is there anyway of getting the Artist/Title information of the currently playing song and displaying it on the Music controls bar on both the lock screen (accessed by double clicking home button on lock screen) and on the multitasking bar (accessed by opening the multitasking bar and sliding to the right)? I expect after this update, we will see a lot more blue comments on this site :)
And ofc I'm running on iPod 2g -.-
First of really pleased about this update, it's fantastic. As a developer myself (although new to iPhone) I wonder if you like the way that Apple has approached multi-tasking? I think it's pretty slick although we've had to wait. I'm also curious whether the iOS4 allows you to display the artist and track information from the lock screen? Perhaps we'll see this in a future update. Some of the features that I'd like to see next is the ability to queue tracks and to browse and share tracks with my friends. Performance tweaks, both in speed and battery are always welcome. Great stuff!
The best thing that has happened to my iPhone, so far :)
Fantastic update!! But like tominic and samleicester said, where is the queue function...?
Love this update. Although it doesn't seems go along with Skype. When starting Skype, Spotify crashes. Skype has not yet been upgraded to iOS4 so we have to wait and see.
Thanks for the update guys, works like a charm on my iPhone 4. Next up, can you update the graphics or at least the icon? They look really blocky on an iPhone 4. Happy to send screenshots if you need to take a look.
Great update! I second the request for high-res graphics and icon. It must be hard for you guys to please 4 and 3G users simultaneously though. I was also wondering about art on the lock screen. This would be wonderful if Apple allow it. Do they? (None of the other iphone music apps seem able to put art on the lock screen either…)
The update is BROKEN! The fast app switching/background audio/headphone controls only work when spotify is playing it's own songs. If you start playing a track that has been imported from the iPod then it doesn't work. If you go to the home screen or switch apps then the music stops. And if you click the headphone controls then the app will start playing the iPod instead of Spotify. Almost there guys, but you need to update the app again.
I love the two things I missed the most: the iOS 4 multitasking and the use of the headset remote and lockscreen buttons to control Spotify! Brilliant update, thanks!!
> As a developer myself (although new to iPhone) I wonder if you like the way that Apple has approached multi-tasking? Yes, I'm very happy about it. It does exactly what I want, with an extremely simple API. This update only took time because we did What's New and because I wanted to fix some battery consumption issues now that we run in the background. > the iOS4 allows you to display the artist and track information from the lock screen? No, there is no such API; I have requested it from Apple. > The update is BROKEN! The fast app switching/background audio/headphone controls only work when spotify is playing it's own songs. If you start playing a track that has been imported from the iPod then it doesn't work. If you go to the home screen or switch apps then the music stops. And if you click the headphone controls then the app will start playing the iPod instead of Spotify. This update should have disabled iPod integration when you started it the first time; it didn't do that for you? It's an Apple issue, I've reported it to them.
And it's here! Thanks a lot, now this is the ultimate music service which you can have running all the time in the background plus the AWESOME headset controlls! No more iPod useage on the iPhone for me :3