Stockholm, April 17, 2026, 20:34 (UTC+02:00)
Spotify rolled out a redesigned app for iPad and Android tablet users on Thursday, moving away from the stretched phone-style layout that had long filled larger screens. The update adds side-by-side browsing, a collapsible sidebar and a more prominent button for switching from audio to video.
The timing matters because Spotify has been widening its video and book features this month, and tablets give it more room to keep playback visible while users browse. The tablet refresh came a week after new video controls and a day after Spotify expanded audiobook tools and book sales through Bookshop.org on Android in the United States and Britain.
“We’ve been designing Spotify to feel native to each screen,” Nicole Burrow, Spotify’s head of design for consumer experience, said in the company announcement. Spotify said the new layout is available on iOS and Android tablets and should let some mobile improvements reach tablet users faster. Spotify
The main changes are adaptive orientation — meaning the app rearranges rather than just stretches when a device rotates — and “parallel browsing,” which lets users keep music or video playing on one side while exploring libraries or recommendations on the other. The core navigation bar stays in place, while a side drawer adds quicker access to profile and settings. 9to5Mac
The more prominent “Switch to Video” button fits a broader push beyond audio. Spotify said on April 9 that it was rolling out new video controls globally, and Reuters reported in December that the company expanded music videos in the United States and Canada as it tried to challenge YouTube and sharpen its position against Apple and Amazon’s music services. Spotify
Books are part of the same drive. On April 15, Spotify said Audiobooks in Premium was live in 22 markets and that its catalog had grown to more than 700,000 titles, while Owen Smith, Spotify’s global head of audiobooks, said the aim was to “make reading fit into modern life.” Spotify
But the rollout may not land evenly across every big-screen device. Spotify did not mention foldables in its announcement, but 9to5Google reported the new layout was also appearing on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7, Honor’s Magic V6 and Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold, while Oppo’s Find N6 was left out, suggesting screen size, aspect ratio or device optimization may still shape how broadly the redesign works.
Spotify shares were little changed in New York afternoon trading on Friday, up about 0.2% at $532.40, while 9to5Google said the redesign was now widely available and that versions of it had already started reaching some users before Thursday’s formal launch.
