Spotify could be working on a feature that lets you import music stored on your Android phone

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Spotify has a huge database with something for almost everyone. I find I just leave the discovery queue on most of the time and I’m usually pleasantly surprised.

If your tastes in music are more niche, however, you’ve probably not been able to find your favorite songs on the service. That leads to an annoying situation where you have to have multiple music player apps installed, as your Spotify Premium account currently doesn’t let you add local songs to your playlists.

It looks like that annoyance might be coming to an end in the near future, with Spotify apparently testing the ability to import locally stored songs to the Spotify app.

More about the (possible) feature

The feature was uncovered by the prolific app feature-seeker Jane Manchun Wong, who recently posted a screenshot of a new Import feature she found in a beta version of Spotify’s Android app.

Spotify is testing "Import your music" directly from your Android device pic.twitter.com/Nx28gdI4mR

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 29, 2018

The screenshots show the Spotify app letting the user access local files on their Android device, giving them access to Spotify’s player to listen to the music. This looks to be similar to how Spotify’s app on the desktop works, with users allowed to access the songs locally but not stream them from another device.

New album view on the way?

According to more app-diving, Spotify is also testing out a few other tweaks. A redesigned album view is in the cards, along with a host of quality-of-life updates for its Podcasts support.

Included in the tested features, the ability to download offline copies of podcasts to listen to later (either to save on mobile data costs or because you’ll be somewhere without reliable internet) and a decluttering of the podcasts screen by moving descriptions to a different screen. Another possible change being tested is a redesigned library view with the Favorite Songs list turning into a separate playlist.

With any feature in testing, keep in mind that they might not appear in the app for a while, if at all. If you don’t already have a local library of songs on your device, it’s probably not worth transferring them from your computer just yet. If testing goes well and they do get included, it could go a long way to turning Spotify into the go-to for mobile music playing.

What do you think? Would you like to see these updates? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Amazon Echo devices will soon be able to stream Apple Music
• The Spotify app for Apple Watch finally releases, but it’s a bit of a let down
• Ripping a page from MySpace, Facebook will soon let you add music to your profile page

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.