Spotify Will Soon Support Local Audio Files on Android
Dec. 7, 2020Spotify has long offered the ability to play local MP3 files from its desktop app. The music streaming giant seems to finally be working on a similar functionality for its Android app. As spotted by app reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, the companymay soon add a new ‘Show device files’ togglethat lets users play audio local files within Spotify.
Once enabled, you will see your collection of MP3 songs from your device in the app’s ‘Your Library’ section. This way, you no longer have to rely onoffline music appsto tune in to all songs you’ve collected over the years. It also avoids the hassle of having tosync your offline tracksfrom the desktop app.
While we have witnessed a paradigm shift in the way people consume music with the advent of Spotify andother music streaming apps, this feature builds on the company’s new strategy of positioning Spotify as a full-fledged media app as opposed to just an online music streaming service.
Spotify’s plans to support offline audio files on mobile comes at a time when Google finallypulled the plug on Google Play Music. While users have already startedmoving their Play Music library to YouTube Music, Spotify may be able to attract users searching for alternative apps if they implement this feature soon.
Unfortunately, we can’t be sure when Spotify will enable this handy new feature for everyone. As of this writing, the company has not added the feature on my end. With the demise of Google Play Music, one would hope that Spotify would add this feature sooner rather than later.
Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.
