In iOS app redesign, Spotify ditches the unintuitive “hamburger” menu for more conventional navigation bar buttons; Android redesign is slated for July
Context & Ripple Effects
In 2016, Spotify's iOS app still hid its main sections behind a hamburger menu while most top apps had moved to visible tab-bar buttons — this redesign closes that gap and commits to bringing the same layout to Android by July. It is the opening move in what became a long cadence of navigation overhauls: the streamlined Premium navigation rollout of 2018, the split Music and Podcasts feeds on Android home screens in 2022, and the TikTok-style homescreen redesign of 2023.
The significance is less any single screen than the pattern it started: each subsequent revamp has been explicitly framed as aligning one surface with another, from the desktop Your Library and Now Playing update to the TV app homepage modeled on mobile. The 2016 hamburger removal is where that cross-platform convergence logic first shows up.
First-order effects
- iOS users immediately get Spotify's core sections as conventional navigation bar buttons instead of a hidden side drawer, lowering the learning curve for new subscribers.
- Android users are left on the old layout until the promised July redesign, creating a temporary feature gap between the two platforms.
Second-order effects
- The iOS-first-then-Android sequencing becomes Spotify's default rollout template, echoed later when the 2022 Android home-screen feeds were slated to reach iOS afterward.
- By standardizing on conventional navigation patterns, Spotify reduces the onboarding cost that previously distinguished it from rivals whose apps already used tab bars.
Third-order effects
- If the alignment pattern holds — mobile, desktop, and TV converging on shared layouts — Spotify's product surface consolidates around one design language, making future features ship across platforms simultaneously rather than per-app.
- The move tracks the broader industry retreat from the hamburger menu, pushing discovery-driven apps toward always-visible navigation as recommendation surfaces like the 2023 homescreen become the primary entry point.
The trend: Spotify has spent the decade since this redesign converging every platform — mobile, desktop, TV — on a single recommendation-led interface, with navigation simplification as the recurring first step.