Current accessibility issues on Spotify For iOS

By Ricardo Brandão, 22 October, 2023

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hello, colleagues. How are you? I hope and wish you are well.

In the latest Spotify updates, some problems have arisen in the interface that, despite not making the application inaccessible, are hindering the ability. I have already reported them to the support team and the Spotify community, but I count on your help. Below are the problems I was able to identify, as well as the possible solutions, according to what I learned by reading the Applevis community guides. First, I want to inform you that I am in the latest version of the application on Spotify, also in the latest version of iOS, 17.0.3, remembering that this also affects previous versions of the system, which proves not to be a VoiceOver problem.

Without further ado, let's get to the problems:

1. As an old problem, we can no longer read the lyrics of the songs with the VoiceOver screen reader. As an alternative solution, you can select the option "open letter in full screen";

2. More recently, when we open the screen of a playlist, it is not possible to read its name in the title. In this case, you should pay attention to the name of the playlist before clicking on it, to make sure it is in the correct list;

3. When we open the credit of some song, there is no longer the title of the song at the beginning of the window. The previous solution is also valid in this case, we have to pay attention to the title of the song we selected to see the credits before opening them;

4. When we are on the player screen, clicking the next track button causes Voiceover to keep saying the name of the next song in the queue, hindering navigation. To avoid this problem, you can explore the screen with your finger and perform the split touch on the music forward or backward buttons, without taking the finger that is browsing off the screen;

5. At times, the title of what is being played does not appear at the top of the player. The tips Corresponding to items 2 and 3 apply here;

6. The order of the player buttons is messy in linear navigation with VoiceOver. There is no Alternative solution to this problem, unless tactile exploration is used instead of scans.

Thank you for your attention. have a great day!

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Comments

By Sof on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 12:22

It's such a shame that the accessibility of Spotify has deteriorated so much, especially considering how enjoyable it used to be to use. Here, when I'm in a playlist, I like to double-tap on the songs one by one to listen to a preview. Previously, the focus would stay on the chosen song and I could simply tap in the center of the screen to go back to where I was. However, now, whenever I tap, it almost always takes me to the "connect to a device" button.

I made the mistake of leaving the Spotify beta program and I regret it because now I can't go back. It seemed like the requests were better taken into account through that channel.

By Ricardo Brandão on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 12:22

You're right! I forgot about this problem, but really the focus is being diverted occasionally to the button to connect to other devices, especially when you click on a song inside an album, playlist, etc. I'll report this one too

By sockhopsinger on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 12:22

I don't know why this would matter, but are you paid subscribers? I am a Spotify Premium user, and I do not have these problems you are talking about. I am able to click on the now playing song and get more song details, including a button to open the lyrics. They read just fine. Again, this is just something to ponder. I'm not trying to rub it in or anything, and I'm not trying to say your problems don't exist. I am simply trying to determine anything that could be different.

By Ricardo Brandão on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 12:22

I understand, my friend. Answering your first question, I am a primium user, I believe that whoever made the previous comment is also. About the button you referred to to open the letter, it would not need to be touched, because the letter appears in the player and before it was possible to read directly there. Try to do the tests one by one to try to reproduce Each of these inconsistencies and see if it works...