If you were hoping for more collaboration between music streaming rivals now that Apple Music playlists can be ported over to YouTube Music, you may have to wait a little longer. Apple recently retired the technology that allowed iPhone users to control the volume of devices playing music via Spotify Connect using their phones’ physical volume buttons.
This information comes from a update on Spotify’s support page. While Spotify says they’re “working with (Apple) on a fix,” there is already a temporary workaround. When you use Spotify Connect to play music on your smart TV, computer, smart speaker, or other devices, a volume slider will appear allowing you to make necessary adjustments when you press your iPhone’s volume button in the Spotify app.
You can also change the volume via the Connect Menu. And if you press the volume button while Spotify is playing in the background, you will receive a notification asking if you want to change the volume. Tapping that notification will take you to the volume control. Just make sure your Spotify app is up to date.
Spotify has clearly pointed the finger at Apple. According to a report from The EdgeThe problem lies in Apple’s technology that allows Apple Music to be played on third-party devices. This technology is not shared with Spotify, making the iPhone’s physical switch unreliable on connected devices.
This change will take effect on September 3, but some users have already noticed the impact.
So is Apple bad, or is Spotify cheating?
There’s no doubt that Spotify users on iPhone are and will continue to be frustrated, even if it means you can no longer accidentally turn up your speakers when you’re trying to watch an Instagram Reel.
Spotify paints Apple as the culprit, but the music streaming platform itself is not entirely innocent either.
It’s easy to criticize Apple for blocking features instead of competing directly with Spotify. However, in that same Verge article, a quote from Spotify reveals an important detail:
“We’ve asked Apple to introduce a similar solution to what they offer users on HomePod and Apple TV for app developers who want to control non-Apple media devices. Apple has told us they need apps to integrate with HomePod to access the technology that controls volume on iPhones.”
Streaming from Apple’s HomePod isn’t an impossible task, though. Plenty of third-party music services have done it – you just have to use the required API (Application Programming Interface). Spotify simply hasn’t done it.
As is often the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It would be nice if Apple gave iPhone users more autonomy, just like it does with Android phones, but Spotify has had ample time to implement the necessary API and has chosen not to. Playing the victim and blaming Apple feels like a tired old story.
Whether you side with Apple or Spotify, or are critical of both, at least you know that the volume issues you’re having aren’t imaginary. And they’ll be fixed on September 3, even if the fix is a bit more involved.