We are currently in the process of deprecating the Inbox/Messages feature within the Spotify app.
Extensive data analysis has shown that this feature has very low engagement. The huge disparity between the use of the feature and the manpower required to maintain it doesn’t merit keeping it running, so we've taken the difficult decision to remove it.
In turn, this will allow us to focus our efforts on improving the features we know you do use a lot, as well as work on exciting integrations with all the awesome third-party messaging apps out there.
We’re always trying out innovative ways to use the app, so stay tuned for new sharing features in the future.
If you’re interested to learn more about how the Spotify app evolves, have a look at our article about testing and why features change.
Lastly, we would love it if you could share your feedback about how you share Spotify music with your friends right now, and what social integrations you’d like to see added to the Spotify app, in this thread.
Thanks in advance for bringing your feedback to the Community.
For everyone that has posted here and everyone that may post here, please note this thread started back in February. Since then, the pages of replies and outcry have been significant. Good work everyone! I have read many of your comments and stories. However, it’s time we face reality.
The silence and non-reversal clearly affirm their decision and demonstrate user feedback/engagement means very little to this service. My advice, make peace with it, or move on (as I did). I made my intentions to move to another service clear in earlier posts in this thread. I've been happily using Google (family) for the last three months.
In the end, it's like breaking up with your first love. When the time comes, you want it to last, but you know it's time. I loved the service and recommended it to friends (and anyone that would listen and loved music). I was a premium family subscriber and an individual subscriber since US launch. It was hard to let go – Spotify was part of my daily routine. My last bastion was being subscribed to this thread – hoping that we would be heard. (Attachment to anything isn’t always logical as we know.)
But, as has so often been said, all good things… Each of you, please enjoy music, share the love of music and decide thoughtfully if Spotify is the right place for you any longer. Thanks for the memories.
This has been my biggest dissappointment since spotify started. I do not want to share songs publicly or via text message or another messaging service. I had many music friends who I only spoke to and interacted with through the spotify message service and it was by far my favorite part of the platform. When people would ask me why I recommended it, the direct inbox music sharing + conversation was the very first thing that I referenced and it was the differentiator between spotify and other services. I don't think Spotify did a good job of explaining the functionality and most friends that I mentioned it to when it was live had no idea that it existed. Of course it had low engagement if it was not a feature that got enough exposure in the first place. This was poorly executed and a huge failure in my opinion. The social share functions are actually very annoying and a terrible alternative. The technology world is evolving - find a way to bring it back but automate the work that goes into it if it is that huge of a time suck.
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Re: Inbox and messages - FINALLY! A solution! :) :)
Hey everyone! My brother stumbled upon something that I'm so excited about! After weeks and weeks of depression about the inbox disappearing, we found a solution that is working well for us. It does require a couple third party apps, but they integrate well with just a little setup.
So, first install the Slack chat app, set up a workspace, invite your friends to your workspace then you can add a spotify extension that allows you to share what you're currently listening to on Spotify. I have also installed IFTTT https://ifttt.com/connect/spotify/slack This app has all sorts of automations, but the one that we're interested in here is the one where you can set up a playlist to automatically send notifications via Slack to your friends whenever you add a new song. I have a separate channel or private group set up for each friend that I want to share with, then we can chat about the songs we're sharing but keep it separate from standard chat so the music doesn't get lost if we don't have time to listen right away.
Very disappointing. It was a great feature. People would have used it more if you had enabled a notification system for new messages, as many times requested in the community.
Now youre forcing people to use or sign up for other social media... What if you dont have Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr?
Yeah this is just really disappointing, no way around it. Hard to understand how something seemingly so simple could be deemed too expensive to maintain. What about people who used messages with friends to archive certain music that they had shared with one another without saving to a playlist? Is there no way to at least access old messages?
Yeah, how do you access old messages now? We could have been given some kind of notice... I had songs there that I didn't have time to move to playlists. Songs I sent yesterday that for sure were not listented by their recipents yet.
And yes, inbox = not rocket science. It's like one of the oldest features on the Internet era. How was that hard to maintain?
And, if too expensive, you could have kept it for premium users at least! I'd have paid an extra dolar to keep it.
Pleaseeeeeeeeee bring it back! I noticed the notifications did not work so I'm sure it would be used more if you could get that to work. I also had important music there that was shared with me and I can't check it anymore.
I appreciate that the feature never seemed to get much love development-wise (notifications would have gone a long way toward increasing engagement, I feel), and I understand the cost-benefit analysis, but is there any way to retrieve the years of messages I had in my inbox? The icon has simply disappeared, and with it, my social music history--I used this feature to privately share songs all the time.
