Spotify Widget Changed on Android: 82 Reviews (2026)

If your Spotify home screen widget suddenly got bigger, lost its skip buttons, or disappeared after an update, it is not your launcher. Spotify has been replacing its old Android widget with a new one since September, and in mid-October the old one went away for good for many of the people who still had it.

We read every recent Google Play review about the change to find out what exactly happened, what Spotify tells people, and whether the new widget can be made to work like the old one.

Quick Answer: What Happened to the Spotify Widget?

Spotify replaced its small Android home screen widget with a new, larger "recommendations" widget. Since 13 September 2026, 82 Google Play reviewers have complained about it. 40 say the old small widget is gone or that they are forced onto the bigger one, 18 say the new widget does not load or work, and 5 say it shows playlists instead of what they are playing. Complaints jumped on 15 October, when 17 people wrote about it in one day, almost all on version 9.1.90. Spotify's answer is that the new widget can be resized to the old size, but 4 reviewers say the new widget lost controls like the skip button.

How We Counted

We pulled the 24,000 most recent US English-language Google Play reviews of Spotify, which reach back to 13 September 2026, and read every review that mentions a widget. Spotify holds 4.35 stars from 36,495,818 ratings on Google Play and 4.77 from 42,611,355 on the App Store. Every review below is from the Android app.

We left out reviews about other things Spotify calls widgets, like the cards under the song that is playing, the lock screen player, or wishes for new widget designs. That left 82 reviews about the home screen widget change.

The change did not happen on one day. 40 of the 82 reviews were written in the second half of September, 21 between 1 and 14 October, and another 21 on 15 and 16 October alone. Before 15 October, the most we saw on a single day was 6. On 15 October it was 17, or 14 of that day's 192 negative reviews. 20 of the 21 reviews from 15 and 16 October were on version 9.1.90, and 18 of them are about the old widget being gone.

Change 1: The Old Small Widget Is Gone

For a few weeks the two widgets lived side by side. One reviewer explains what changed on 14 October:

Edit 10/14/26: The new widget needing to be with the old widget was mildly annoying, but at least I could toggle back to the old one. The newest update apparently removed the old widget entirely, and the new widget is now only showing a song from a playlist I switched away from 12 hours ago, which essentially renders the widget useless.

Most of the complaints are about size. The old widget fit in a single row. The new one takes two:

The new update does not allow for the regular 4x1 home screen widget. As it forces you to use the 4x2 widget. This is not only not what I want but it now takes up too much space. It's honestly tacky now.

The new widget is horrible. give us the old one back, please. I don't understand why 2 rows is a must.

For some people the old widget stopped working earlier, with a message asking them to switch to the new one:

Used to be great, but for some reason the smaller widget can no longer be used (it says I must update to the newer version-the larger one). Even when I use the large one it doesn't work and says to tap to refresh but nothing happens, even when I'm connected to wifi/data.

Others lost it in September, with no warning at all:

Customer for 10+ years, but removal of vital Android widget just sinks this app and product for me. Very disappointed in customer service and product development. Awful decision with zero notice. Switched to Qobuz, much better!

Change 2: The New Widget Often Doesn't Load

18 reviewers say the new widget does not do its basic job. It shows "offline", asks to be refreshed, or does nothing when tapped:

I really dislike the new widget; the old one functioned flawlessly. The new one is either offline and refuses to connect to Spotify unless the app is running in the background, or it attempts to refresh itself when clicked but never completes the refresh.

Three reviewers say the widget keeps telling them to update the app, even though they already have the latest version:

since one of the latest update release, I'm unable to use my Spotify home screen widget, hence as one the most loyal Spotify user I'm not using it anymore. widget keep saying update your app to be able to use it again but I'm on the latest version and there is no more.

Five more say the widget shows Spotify's playlists or daylist instead of the song they paused:

I hate that I no longer have widget access to a song paused for any long length of time. It reverts to this daylist thing and I have to open the entire app to play songs.

Spotify's Answer: Resize It. Reviewers: The Buttons Disappear

Spotify replied to 33 of the 82 reviews. 10 replies give the same explanation: the "recommendations widget" was updated, now supports more sizes and "can be resized to the size of the legacy widget". 9 more point to Spotify's support article on the Android home screen widget, and 10 suggest reinstalling the app.

Resizing does work for some people. One reviewer in September was happy with it:

Latest phone update. It's forcing me to choose the larger 4x2 widget instead of the 4x1 widget. The 4x2 widget can be resized to 4x1. Thanks for the assistance Spotify.

But 4 reviewers say the new widget is not the same thing, because it lost controls the old one had:

Where did my smaller widget go? Now the only option is the bigger one and when you scale it down, none of the function buttons are there. Who's idea was that? 😑

so why exactly did they change the widget? now there is no skip song button on 1x4 widget.

why the hell did you get rid of the 5x1 widget? accidentally deleted it off my home screen and the only widget option now sucks...absolutely terrible. You got rid of the track skip buttons and only widget option only has a Play/Pause button. who the hell thought that was a good idea?

That is the core of the complaint. The old widget gave play, pause and skip in one row. Reviewers say the new one, especially at the small size, gives up buttons like skip.

What You Can Do

Resize the new widget first. That is Spotify's own advice, and its support article "Spotify Home screen widget on Android" lists the size options. If you only need play and pause, the small size may be enough.

Try the larger size if you need skip. The missing skip button complaints are about the small, one-row size.

If it says offline or keeps asking to refresh, reinstall. That is the fix Spotify suggested in 10 replies. One reviewer says the new widget only connects when the Spotify app is already running in the background.

Don't downgrade. One reviewer went back to version 9.1.40 to keep the old widget. That means giving up every fix since then, so we don't recommend it.

Vote for the old widget where Spotify listens. In one reply Spotify asked a reviewer to post the request on its Ideas Board at community.spotify.com, where other users can vote on it.

This is not the only recent Spotify complaint. If the app logged you out, read our breakdown of the Spotify logout and login outage. If you are thinking about leaving, see how it compares in our music streaming app rankings.

Read the Full Breakdown

You can read the full negative review breakdown for Spotify on Android and Spotify on iOS, or go to the Spotify trust check and apps like Spotify.