Spotify kills its heart button to be replaced with a ‘plus’ sign

Spotify announced today that it is consolidating the heart and the “Add to playlist” icons into a single plus button, allowing users to save all songs, albums, playlists, audiobooks, podcasts or episodes to their library with one tap.

To add a song to “Liked Songs,” users tap the plus button located on the right-hand side in the “Now Playing View.” After tapping on it, the icon will change to a green checkmark to let the user know that it’s been saved to the list. Then, if users want to add the song to another playlist, they can tap the plus icon again. Users can also select the new button on podcast episodes and add them to “Your Episodes.”

Starting today, the new icon is rolling out worldwide on iOS and Android devices. It will become available to all Spotify users in the coming weeks. Some users already have the icon as Spotify has been testing the change since last year.

Although it’s a minor change, it might be hard for some users to get used to. A heart icon is widely used across many popular apps, including Spotify competitors like Apple Music as well as social media platforms like Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. In fact, Twitter changed its star-shaped favorite/like button to a heart in 2015 since the heart is a more universal symbol.

However, Spotify is convinced that the new plus button will help users save time since it gives them the ability to add to multiple playlists at once. During testing of the feature, Spotify said users were more likely to listen to the favorited track again after it was saved.

In recent months, Spotify has launched many ways to try and improve the user experience. For instance, last week, the music streaming service rolled out “DJ,” a new AI feature that gives users a curated selection of music alongside AI-powered spoken commentary about their favorite songs and artists. The new feature is still in beta and is only available in English for paid subscribers in the United States and Canada.

Earlier this month, Spotify announced an “Exclude from your taste profile” feature that lets users dictate which playlists are excluded from their personalized recommendations.

Also, the company launched a new Home experience over the summer where “Music” and “Podcasts & Shows” are separate feeds.

Spotify launches ‘DJ,’ a new feature offering personalized music with AI-powered commentary