Apple breaks Spotify Connect's volume control buttons: What can you do about it?

Spotify Connect update: Spotify and Apple have been at odds with each other for a long time now. In the past, Spotify has sued Apple for preventing music streaming companies from informing users of payment options outside its App Store. The case led to EU slapping a fine of $2 billion on Apple earlier this year. Now, Spotify is sounding alarms against Apple once again. In a recent turn of events, the music-streaming company has blamed Apple for breaking a critical Spotify Connect feature -- the volume control buttons.  

While the non-functional volume control buttons might seem like an insignificant thing, they make a world of difference when you are running an app or streaming music on other devices.

"Apple has discontinued the technology that enables Spotify to control volume for connected devices using the volume buttons on the device," Spotify wrote in a support page detailing the issue.

As per a TechCrunch report, Spotify has also accused Apple of violating the EU's Digital Markets Act or more specifically the article 6(7) of the DMA. This section states:

"The gatekeeper shall allow business users and alternative providers of services provided together with, or in support of, core platform services, free of charge, effective interoperability with, and access for the purposes of interoperability to, the same operating system, hardware or software features, regardless of whether those features are part of the operating system, as are available to, or used by, that gatekeeper when providing such services."

"The gatekeeper shall not be prevented from taking strictly necessary and proportionate measures to ensure that interoperability does not compromise the integrity of the operating system, virtual assistant, hardware or software features provided by the gatekeeper, provided that such measures are duly justified by the gatekeeper."

What is Spotify Connect?

For the unversed, Spotify Connect is feature in the Spotify app that lets users stream music from their smartphones to the connected devices such as smart TVs, smart speakers, gaming consoles and even their wearables. In addition to streaming music users can also control the volume of the audio on connected device simply by pressing the volume control buttons on the side of their iPhones. The feature is similar to how Apple's AirPlay works.

But now, Apple's latest update has broken this feature.

How can Spotify Connect users fix this?

Spotify has said that while it works on a solution, users can use the Spotify app to adjust the volume on their connected devices. Alternatively, they can also access the volume slider from the Connect Menu section in the Spotify app by taping the Connected device in their Now Playing bar at the bottom of the app screen.