Does Spotify take up too much space on your phone? A new feature could solve the problem

To make playback smoother and use less data when re-listening to a track, Spotify stores music, podcasts and album covers in memory. It is a cache that the user cannot manage and which, over time, often ends up occupying several GB. However, the development team is reportedly working on a solution to fix the problem.

Spotify: the cache limit emerges in the Android app code

In version 9.1.88.815 of Spotify for Android, strings for a new settings section called “Cache limit” appeared, designed to decide how much space the app can use for temporary content. The user could set a maximum cap expressed in GB, and among the options there would be one indicated as recommended by Spotify.

The code also contains the warnings that would accompany the choice. A smaller cache could affect playback and increase data usage, while a larger one would guarantee smoother playback and lower data traffic. Another message clarifies that downloads are safe: changing the limit would never delete music or downloaded podcasts.

What would change compared to today

Currently the only way to free up space is to manually clear the cache from Spotify’s settings, in the data saver/offline usage section. With the new limit the management would become automatic, within the threshold chosen by the user.

Spotify has not announced the new feature, which at the moment has emerged only in the Android app code and is not active. There are no indications on release timelines or available thresholds, but it remains a hopeful development for the future.

Anyway, it’s also worth remembering that features found in the code do not always make it into the public version, so fingers crossed!

For all the latest news dedicated to the audio streaming service, you can find our most recent articles in the Spotify section of GizChina.it.