Spotify has still not enabled AirPlay 2 in its iPhone and iPad app, nearly six months after last promising to support the feature. "Spotify will support AirPlay 2 and we're working to make that a reality," a Spotify spokesperson informed MacRumors in early August, in response to a Spotify Community forum post that said the company had paused plans to support the feature.

The streaming music provider has not provided an update on its AirPlay 2 plans since, and it did not respond to requests for comment this week.

Apple launched AirPlay 2 in 2018 with several improvements over the original version of AirPlay, including support for multi-room audio, Siri voice control, and improved buffering. Apple is not preventing Spotify from supporting AirPlay 2 and offers documentation on its developer website for apps that wish to implement the feature.

Spotify also still does not natively support the HomePod or HomePod mini, despite Apple opening up the speakers to third-party music services in 2020. This is despite Spotify filing a complaint against Apple with the European Commission in March 2019 that accused the iPhone maker of locking Spotify out of platforms like the HomePod and Siri.

Article Link: Spotify Still Doesn't Offer AirPlay 2 Nearly Six Months After Last Promising to Support the Feature

And the software still installs as auto starting with the computer, and normalised audio levels. I wonder if they even care about sound at all.

Also... what about Spotify Hi-Fi tier that was also long promised?

Spotify also still does not natively support the Homepod and Siri despite filing a complaint against Apple with the European Commission in March 2019 that accused the iPhone maker of locking Spotify out of platforms like the HomePod and Siri.

This is all you need to know about Spotify.

Time for everyone to leave them they don’t deliver, Apple Music is much better

Simple case of corporate bickering that negatively impacts consumers. Same reason Ring cameras and alarms don't work with Homekit after they promised it for YEARS!

I've been AirPlaying Spotify for years and it works great. What would AirPlay 2 support bring to the table? Maybe they just don't see it as necessary.

I'm guessing the Hi-Fi plan had to do with bandwidth and efforts they thought they could charge extra for and now can't because competition giving it out for free (and would possibly make their profit loss sheets even worse than usual). But, for Airplay...isn't it pretty much just giving up subs to Apple Music the longer it's delayed? What else am I missing?

First Spotify complains that Apple products don't support their service natively. Now that Apple opened the door to them, they aren't taking advantage of it. You'd think with all that money in royalties they're holding back and ripping off artists they'd be able to speed things up a bit.

zorinlynx said:

I've been AirPlaying Spotify for years and it works great. What would AirPlay 2 support bring to the table? Maybe they just don't see it as necessary.

The main new feature of AirPlay 2 is the ability to stream from an app to multiple speakers simultaneously.

Maybe they don't see it as necessary - but they clearly did when they announced that they were working to bring the feature to their app.

lol so many words like "hate" ... honestly, people. MacRumors is trolling you for ad impressions and you're taking the bait. It's no one's business—no one—what music service you use. Apple Music? Awesome. Spotify? That's great. Amazon Music? Fine choice. Tidal? You rebel! Used CDs bought at Goodwill and ripped to your iPod? Old Skool!

Let billion dollar companies squabble like children. They don't need us to manufacture righteousness on their behalf.

Spotify hired too many whiners and too many lawyers. They forgot to actually hire developers and people who care about music.

Perhaps this is part of Spotify's marketing strategy. Announce upcoming features. Benefit from a few extra subscriptions. Delay indefinitely.

"Jam tomorrow" is the phrase I believe we use in the UK. Quite fitting really.

I truly hate Spotify as a company. They're so slow and when they implement something new it is often mediocre. I really enjoy Apple Music's sound quality and intergration into the HomePod. But the ability to look up user-made playlists on Spotify, their UI and their Discover Weekly is keeping me at Spotify.

cateye said:

lol so many words like "hate" ... honestly, people. MacRumors is trolling you for ad impressions and you're taking the bait. It's no one's business—no one—what music service you use. Apple Music? Awesome. Spotify? That's great. Amazon Music? Fine choice. Tidal? You rebel! Used CDs bought at Goodwill and ripped to your iPod? Old Skool!

Let billion dollar companies squabble like children. They don't need us to manufacture righteousness on their behalf.

How dare you exclude us Zune owners /s

Spotify development is a huge disappointment, point. I experience many bugs that deeply affect my appreciation. The only reason I remain a subscriber is their algorithm, which is incredible at understanding my taste and guessing what I could like. And creating collaborative playlists. For the rest, they don't really deliver.

One bug in particular: my iPhone volume is regularly MAXED OUT when I have Spotify open and playing on my MacBook. Yup, the Spotify iOS app takes control of the iPhone overall volume even though I am not playing music on the iPhone. This happens on a daily basis and damages my ears.

Saturnine said:

Perhaps this is part of Spotify's marketing strategy. Announce upcoming features. Benefit from a few extra subscriptions. Delay indefinitely.

"Jam tomorrow" is the phrase I believe we use in the UK. Quite fitting really.

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They are masters of Game Theory, announce the feature while never actually do anything to build it. A permanent state of “coming soon”.

Airplay is an interesting product. Today, Apple Siri can control All Airplay Speakers but Sonos cannot. Example, Siri play on the Airplay group Everywhere. All speakers assigned to that Airplay group will play. Command Sonos the same, either voice or App, only Sonos speakers will play. Sonos cannot control my HomePod. Same with volume control. Should not happen. Any speaker being Airplay compatible should work the same. Who’s fault, really do not care. End of the day needs to work.

The main new feature of AirPlay 2 is the ability to stream from an app to multiple speakers simultaneously.

Which is not unique to AirPlay2. The problem is, everyone has their own technology: Spotify Connect, Chromecast, AirPlay, there are others. In a consumer-centric world, there would be one all-encompassing standard. But there isn't. And let's be honest, any audio equipment worth its salt supports a bunch of them. Hell, my 10 year old budget Denon receiver does.

If you use Spotify, you already have choices within the App for casting, including multicasting. Hence my previous message: This is manufactured rage over a margin feature.

agree the Spotify also is fantastic. The UI of the app is also easier to use. Liking songs, making playlists etc. annoying that AirPlay 2 doesn’t yet work. More annoying the regular bugs I encounter like Apple Music plays fine in my bmw car over Bluetooth. Spotify conks out all the time in the middle of songs and I have to kill the app. Anyone else have this issue with their car? Hadsnt gone away in over a year now.

But!
Spotify can be ”remote controlled" for example in the sense that it's controlled from an iPhone and then the audio is played back from Spotify from a computer with a good quality DAC, amp and speakers.

Why can't Apple nor Tidal do that yet? Would be perfect for such services that offer lossless audio quality.
Not that I care that much anymore since I in April last year got tinnitus and a bit of hearing-loss in my left ear.

I thought Spotify was complaining about being excluded by Apple, but now they won't implement this?

Nor have they released the Spotify HiFi feature, which is looking more and more each day to be vaporware. And, Spotify's "create station" feature sucks (give me songs from more than 5 or 6 artists!!). Really wish I could have the best of both worlds: Spotify's app & playlist features, plus the fact that they natively integrate with several stereo components that I have around the house, and then Apple's lossless feature & their "radio" mode which actually gives you a decent selection of different artists.