Spotify is rolling out a big overhaul, and voice activation may be in progress

Spotify is rolling out a big overhaul, and voice activation may be in progress

Spotify users benefit from a massively updated version of the home screen on phones and tablets. There are little details like being greeted with a hello, a good afternoon or a good night, depending on the time of day, but the redesign is much more than that. Throughout the day, not only the welcome message will change, but also the type of content offered. Suggested playlists from Daily Mix, Discover Weekly, and the ``made for you'' podcast have been reduced to smaller buttons that appear at the top of the screen so you can jump right in, or you can continue scrolling to go further Based on the six recommendations, you can access your recently read content, while below you'll find Spotify's suggestions of what you'd like to listen to. The effect of the redesign is that it's now faster than ever to jump into the music you know and love, but great care has been taken to minimize the amount of space that different elements take up. This means that although the home screen is now made up of two sections with new discoveries highlighted in the bottom half, nothing is very far away. In Spotify's words, the new home screen "the new Spotify Home does the work for you, making it easier than ever to find something to listen to, whether it's a long-time favorite or a whole new discovery." As long as you have at least 30 days of listening history, the refreshed look should break through now.

Voice command

But while the current changes are focused on touch controls, there could be some interesting developments just around the corner in the form of voice activation. Discovered by Jane Manchun Wong, an application researcher and reverse engineer, the functionality will use the "Hey Spotify" keywords. So far, very little is known about voice activation, as Spotify hasn't officially announced anything. However, in a screenshot shared by Wong, you can see that when the ``Hey Spotify'' feature is enabled, the app will listen to voice recommendations ``when the app is open and on your screen.'' < p lang="en" dir="ltr">Spotify works on "Hey Spotify" voice activation pic.twitter.com/PqZI01WZreMarch 4, 2020 Via Engadget It's an exciting development, and we'll keep you posted as soon as we know more about how it will work and when it will happen.