Spotify has finally revamped its official app for Android smartphones and tablets for the first time since the end of last year.
The project for developing this update had been ensuing for a long time, but till early this month, little had definitively been announced about how the update was panning out.
The updated Spotify app was launched today in the morning, and it’s still in beta. A number of critical issues have been dealt with, and this is a significant upgrade from the already obsolete update from back in November 2011.
The most distinct change is that the design of the app has been made to fall in line with Matias Duarte’s Holo guidelines for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). The streamlined looks and cleaner interface are far from superficial. From the early reviews, the new Spotify app is significantly faster and more useable than the November version.
Spotify’s official changelog is as follows:
• Totally new app with full support for Android 4.0
• Top-to-bottom redesign
• All-new slide-out navigation
• More social — check out friends’ profile pages and playlists
• Artist images in high resolution
• Related artist view
• So much faster!
• That’s not the end of it. We’re working hard on adding further features, including folders and Last.fm scrobbling before the app goes live in Google Play.
What doesn’t change though is that you’ll need a Spotify Premium subscription of $9.99 per month to use the music streaming service on any mobile device. Then again, Spotify seems to have redressed most of the issues that the app’s users had so far, and it seems to be a good deal for the people who can’t do without Spotify.
[via TheVerge]
