Recently, rumors began to swirl about Spotify hitting Xbox One, thanks to an off-screen photo of Major Nelson using an app dubbed "Spotify Music - for Xbox," from his Xbox status page. While questions were raised about its authenticity, eventually Major Nelson posted a split second tease on his weekly Xbox news show, making the arrival of Spotify a certainty. Now, we've had the opportunity to take a look at the app running on Xbox One for ourselves.
Previously, I speculated that it could be a native Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app, primed to hit all Windows 10 platforms eventually. Alas, it seems that "Spotify Music - for Xbox" is simply an HTML-based app designed for TVs, based on what is already available for Android TV and other services. While it will technically run on other Windows 10 devices, it's only optimized for TVs.
Thankfully, though, this app still supports UWP APIs for background audio, and it looks rather great regardless. Here are some exclusive images of what Spotify looks like on Xbox One.
Spotify for Xbox One is missing a fair amount of features from its desktop and mobile counterparts, and even competing services. You can't download music for playback offline, there are no music videos as found in Groove Music, and there's no full screen visuals either. It's bare bones, but functional. For fans of the service, it will be a welcome addition to the Xbox One's app line-up.
You can search for any music you like, initiate playback from your library, queue up a playlist, and so on. It's ideal for parties, or just making use of the sound system connected to your TV.
The arrival of Spotify is certainly imminent, as the app is all but ready to go. Whether Microsoft just flips the switch and makes it available for all, or adds it to the Xbox Insider Program to test out first remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain ⸻ Spotify for Xbox One is nearly here.
Update August 6, 2017: You can control Spotify on Xbox using the mobile app for Android and iOS too!
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