Spotify Connect is a wireless control of the connected playback devices via the Spotify app, a counterpart to Airplay, for example. Now Spotify has announced in a blog post that the iOS app will lose the ability to control devices connected via Wi-Fi using the iPhone’s hardware buttons such as volume up and down.

But that’s not Spotify’s fault: Apple has discontinued a technology that made this possible. While a solution is being worked on together with Apple, users can change the volume via the app interface, which is of course much more cumbersome.

Spotify revealed a few more reasons for this to “The Verge”: Apparently, they asked Apple to offer a similar interface for the iPhone as for Homepod and Apple TV, so that third-party developers can control some functions using hardware buttons. However, Apple demands that the app integrates support for Homepod so that third-party devices can also be controlled using hardware buttons.

The problem has existed for some time

The problem with remotely controlling connected devices using the iPhone’s volume up and down buttons is a well-known one: There are entries in various speaker manufacturer forums from 2016 that address this. A product manager from Bluesound explains that Apple does not allow third-party control apps to “misuse” the functionality of the iPhone’s hardware buttons, which means controlling the volume in a different way than on the iPhone. With classic music streaming apps like YouTube Music, this works the other way around; we’ve tried this with several Apple and HP playback devices. Two years ago, the same function was discussed with Kodi, and a broken code was even tried out, but the idea was left unrealized.

Spotify’s relationship with Apple has been plagued by various disputes for years. In 2019, the Swedish streaming provider filed a complaint about Apple’s app store practices with the EU, and last year’s Digital Market Act banned some of the practices.

But Spotify is not entirely fair in its communication either: In the same complaint to the EU, the streaming service complained that the Homepod does not allow third-party streaming services, only Apple Music. In 2020, Apple created an option with iOS 14 for third-party providers to integrate their services directly into the Homepod using a cloud API. Unlike YouTube Music, Spotify has not yet used this option.