You know how Spotify remembers where you paused a particular song? And when you come back, it will start the song from the exact place you left.
Great feature, right? Certainly, it’s a pinnacle of user-centered design, keeping your pause point tucked away for when you return, correct?
No.
I bet half the time, the audio app should forget where you paused. Consider the two scenarios:
- You pause your song because your roommate is giving you the latest gossip or you need to switch from your speaker to your headphones. You’re going to unpause in less than two minutes. In this situation, you’ll love the app for remembering exactly where you hit pause.
- You’ve ended your listening session in the middle of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and you’re not going back till the next day. So, the next morning, with your coffee in hand, you hit play, expecting to start your day with some killer tunes. Does it really make sense for Spotify to start playing the song from the middle? By this point, you’ve forgotten why you even paused at 5:45. It’s a new day, a new listening session wouldn’t it be better to start the song from the start?
Today, we have grown used to apps auto-saving and always syncing everything. We assume this always makes the user experience better but sometimes this constant syncing can inadvertently hinder, not help, user experience.
One reply on “Spotify should forget where you paused that song”
I agree with you. I don’t remember when was the last time I continued listening to the song from where I paused it the previous day. I either listen it from the beginning or play a new song altogether.