Users of the Android version of Spotify, like Reddit user Studdz, have been raving over the past few days about the quiet addition of a highly requested feature to the Android version of the music streaming app.
Users have started noticing the presence of a Sleep Timer as one of the options in the “Now Playing” menu, something a recent leak had already pointed out seemed to be coming soon. “I’ve been waiting for this feature forever,” Studdz posted under a Reddit thread titled “Thank you for the sleep timer, Spotify.”
To enable the feature, you first tap on the three dots at the top right of the “Now Playing” screen, look for the Sleep Timer option (which seems to have been rolling out incrementally to users in recent days) and then choose what interval you want before the music turns off. You can do 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes, or you can simply choose that the music turns off at the end of the track that’s currently playing. There’s also an option to turn off the timer itself when you’re ready.
The timer had previously only been an option for use with Spotify’s podcasts, which are of course an area of increasing focus for the company.
Along those lines, Bloomberg reported earlier this month that a new design is coming to the mobile app that puts a greater emphasis on Spotify’s library of podcasts. Per the report, the new design has been tested in a limited way and includes putting bold labels for “music” and “podcasts” on the library page within Spotify, making it easier for a user to find a podcast they want instead of having to wade through several categories as is the case now.
“There are plenty of podcasts we’d all enjoy if only we knew they existed,” Spotify chief financial officer Barry McCarthy told Bloomberg. “There is no search engine, no search interface that understands what podcast you and I like. We’re working hard on that problem.”
