Tech Desk
Aug 30, 2024
Spotify's ties with Apple seem in trouble as a new dispute arose between the two companies that concerns volume controls.
Reportedly, Spotify has accused Apple of breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by eliminating the capability that allows users to control connected devices’ volume directly from the iPhone. Initially, Spotify Connect users on iOS could adjust the volume using the physical buttons on their iPhones.
Now, as Apple has discontinued this technology, controlling volume with the iPhone’s physical toggle has become unstable for connected devices, resulting in volume spiking during playback and other bugs.
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Spotify has blamed this move as a violation of a specific portion of the DMA article 6(7) and as a response, announced a new change on its support page that it will implement from September 3.
iPhone users will now need to use an in-app slider to adjust the volume of connected devices instead of using the physical buttons.
This change only affects Spotify Connect, a feature that lets users use their phones to control Spotify on nearby speakers, game consoles, smart TVs, and computers.
When an iPhone user presses their physical volume, a notification will prompt them to use the in-app volume slider. If the Spotify app is open, the slider will automatically appear when adjusting the volume.
This workaround will only be necessary for Spotify Connect users on iOS and won’t affect users controlling the volume on iOS Bluetooth and AirPlay sessions.
The music streaming platform revealed that this change will result in more persistent and high-quality volume control than before.
It’s worth noting that, due to similar reasons, the Sonos app also stopped allowing iPhone users to change the volume of their devices using physical buttons.
