Spotify has quietly updated its autoplay feature, adding a frustrating glitch. Autoplay is enabled by default when you listen to music on Spotify Connect devices. There's no way for you to turn it off. Spotify will play recommended tracks even if your playlist, album, or song selection has been finished playing on your device.
For weeks, users have been complaining in the Spotify Community forum. This thread has been filled with complaints. A Spotify Community moderator noticed the thread and provided more details about the issue. It is a feature, not a bug.
"We can confirm that Autoplay has been set as the default setting on any connected device."
A Spotify spokesperson confirmed that Autoplay is the default setting on any connected device in an email statement to The Verge. This means that Autoplay will be enabled on any device you use to play Spotify music, including your phone and computer. Tracks will also be added to your Spotify listening experience.
The spokesperson stated that autoplay won't start if you play an album, track, or playlist with Repeat enabled. This is obviously not true if you want to stop an album or playlist from playing after it's finished. A spokesperson said that Spotify had updated the experience in the past few weeks.
The Spotify moderator suggested in the thread that users vote in a post on the Spotify Idea Exchange in support of an option to toggle autoplay off and on. However, the page the moderator links doesn't address this exact issue. The user requests that Spotify restore the settings menu from Spotify's Spotify web player. This prevents them from changing their autoplay preferences when they listen to the site.
The post's title, "[AutoPlay] Option toggle Autoplay on/off across ALL devices/platforms", doesn't address the original problem that users discussed. There was confusion throughout the thread. Comments on the post refer to both the settings menu as well as the issue with Spotify Connect. It is not clear if bringing back settings on the webplayer will solve the autoplay problem on connected devices or vice versa.
If a Spotify Idea Exchange post receives more than 180 votes in less than six months, the suggestion is given the "Live Idea" label. The Spotify team will then review the suggestion. This idea is currently a Good Suggestion. It has received more than 50 votes within three months. It currently has 259 votes. However, it should be elevated soon.
It is ironic that Spotify calls a bug report essentially a bug "idea" since music on connected devices was not set on an endless loop too long ago. Spotify is expected to grow its user base by 400 million users to 381 million by the end this year.
"We at Spotify are committed to providing the best listening experience possible. The Spotify spokesperson stated that they have recently updated the Autoplay settings for connected devices and are actively seeking feedback from the Spotify Community. "We'll continue to improve this feature over the years based on feedback from users.
