Spotify problem with Voice Over

By Geoff37, 16 August, 2019

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Has anyone found the last Spotify app update has broken Voice Over functionality, particularly on the home screen?
Geoff

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Comments

By KE7ZUM on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

Yes, it's broken. And it's a mess. Even using apple's AI to read the labels doesn't work all the time. This is a fail.

By Geoff37 on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

I reported this to Spotify and they said there was no problem. I tried app again today and it is now working with VO. There has been no app or ios update so I must assume the problem was at their end and it has been fixed.

By chris R on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

The last few months it seemed navigating albums was virtually impossible to do and it was frustrating me. Now it is a bit easier thanks to a redesign of the list structure. The context menu button on every list item is unlabelled now though.

By Geoff37 on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

Spoke too soon, improved but still not speaking artists names on home screen.

By Ka Yat Li on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

I've had the same issue with a lot of buttons unlabelled on the home tab. I asked my friends who also had the same version and they reported not having the same problem. I reinstalled the app which seemed to fix it because now those buttons are labelled again.

I tried delete and reinstall app but did not fix for me. Still does not read artist names on home screen. I have contacted Spotify support but I am just getting the run around, they do not seem to understand What Voice Over is or how itt works.
Tidal had a similar VO problem recently that has now been fixed, so I will switch to Tidal.
I have same problem on my iphone7 and ipad Air3, ios 12.4

By KE7ZUM on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

You will always get the run around. In fact they will ask you to contact apple care as it is not their problem, so they say. I give up in contacting them.

By Geoff37 on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

Well, I dont know what is going on. Over the last few days when tapping an album button VO started saying only “button”, then a few days later it said album name and now tonight it is correctly saying album name and artist name. Spotify must be messing around with the way info is sent to the app. I hope they leave alone as it is now working correctly.

By Cowboy on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

For what it’s worth I just left a 1 star review on the App Store. It won’t make a dent in their ratings but maybe if enough of us do this it will make a difference.

In addition to the problem of unlabeled buttons it has occasionally been interpreting my gestures back and fourth to different of the now playing screen as telling it to skip songs. That gets very interesting.

By Vsevolod Popov on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

Yes! For me gestures is more serious issue than not anouncing recently playing songs! Skiping songs in player window does it also in deezer. I thought it is a VO bug!!!

By KE7ZUM on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

I thin they ignore those, just like how they ignore efforts of us to explain accessibility. They keep telling me to contact apple care as voiceover is not in their department.

By Diego Garibay on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

These people are completely ignoring accessibility. If it wasn’t for the good quality of music I would’ve already switch the tidal. However, that service is a bit too expensive for me. Anyway hope it doesn’t get any worse. Still the same over here for me.

By Cowboy on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

Sadly I am tempted to return to Apple Music. There are things I don’t particularly care for about it but at least accessibility isn’t an issue.

By Diego Garibay on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

Can any of you tell me if there is a noticeable quality difference between Spotify and Apple Music?

By Cowboy on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

If you read comparisons between the 2 there is a quality difference between them but I do not recall noticing one. You should probably take that with a grain of salt though because I’m probably the most tone deaf wanna be guitar picker there is.

Hi all, a few comments on audio quality. For many decades I have been interested (my wife would say obsessed) with audio quality and recently decided to spend the kids inheritance on a top quality system including a Yamaha streamer/preamp, Emotiva 550 watt power amp and a pair of very large custom built floor standing electrostatic loudspeakers.
I did some extensive comparison tests streaming from Spotify Premium, Tidal hi-fi and Apple Music.
Tidal uses a lossless file format while Spotify and Apple Music use a lossy compressed file format.
My conclusion is that Spotify and Apple Musicc use a high enough bit rate to produce audibly perfect copies of the original CD track.
I know some people claim Tidal hi-fi sounds better but confirmation bias is a powerful effect. If a difference can truly be heard it is probably due to different source masters being used and nothing to do with the file format used. Tidal claim to have some so called “Master Quality” recordings but this is just marketing hype.

By Cowboy on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

I tried Apple Music again and my problem is that their matching sucks. I really don’t want rap in a radio station I make for red dirt country / Americana. I really don’t want rap or pop either one anyway but that’s beside the point.

By Cowboy on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

Email from Spotify support pasted below.

Hey there Phillip,

Thanks for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear you’ve experienced difficulty with the app.

We strive to ensure our service is accessible to everyone, so we’ll be sure to pass your experience with the latest version of our mobile app on to the right folks here at Spotify.

Thanks again for getting in touch with your report, we really appreciate it. Don’t hesitate to get back in touch if there’s anything else we can do for you.

All the best,

Andrea
Executive Team - Spotify Customer Support

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

I actually left a 5 star review for Spotify on the app store. I explained the VoiceOver issues that people are having. I encourage everyone to report these issues to Spotify. The more feedback they get from users, the issues will be fixed. Now, I can confirm that VoiceOver is reading all the names of my personalized playlists. Before this update VoiceOver would only read some of them. Also, VoiceOver is still not reading the names of my recently played albums and songs. Every time I tap on one VoiceOver just says button. Okay, let's all report these issues to Spotify and hope they will be fixed in the next update.

By Geoff37 on Monday, August 26, 2019 - 03:42

When I started this thread about 2 weeks ago Spotify had suddenly developed multiple VO problems. After a fruitless email exchange with Spotify support I reminded them that, in many countries, it is a legal requirement to take reasonable steps to ensure accessibility. This seemed to trigger an immediate improvement in reading of most buttons. Still not perfect but now more useable.
Perhaps if we all remind support that they are required, by law, to provide an accessible product. They will fix.

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 03:42

There was a new update to Spotify a few days ago, and now I can confirm that the VoiceOver problems have been fixed. VoiceOver now reads the names of my recently played albums, artists and songs as well as my personalized playlists. I can assume that the developers looked at my review on the app store before they fixed all the problems.

Yes, the last update has improved VO functionality but still not working when trying to find a specific album in “your library”.

By Jo Billard on Sunday, July 26, 2020 - 03:42

Spotify is supposed to have a sleep timer, but I can't find it. Is it accessible, or am I just doing it wrong? I've only been using it for a few weeks.

By J.P. on Sunday, July 26, 2020 - 03:42

Hi Jo,
There is a sleep timer. Activate the player at bottom of screen within app. Single finger double tap. You’ll find option Go to Context Menu. Tap that and sleep timer I believe is last option.

By Jo Billard on Sunday, July 26, 2020 - 03:42

In reply to by J.P.

Sorry, I couldn't find it. It started playing jmy latest play list, and it doesn't have a context menu. All I found at the bottom was the scroll bar and the tabs.

By J.P. on Sunday, July 26, 2020 - 03:42

The player is above the tabs. You’ll have to move finger around some. It will say song playing.

By Jo Billard on Sunday, July 26, 2020 - 03:42

I guess I just need sighted assistance. Is the timer on the free version, or just the premium? I was led to believe that it was across the board, but maybe it isn't.