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Is there any trick to use the Desktop version of Spotify’s browser-based web player on an iOS device (e.g. iPhone)? On a Mac you can access it for instance using Chrome at open.spotify.com/browse. On the iPhone however you'll always get an "Unsupported Browser" warning regardless on whether you try Chrome, Firefox or Opera.

According to my knowledge iOS is forcing those browsers to use Apple’s Web Kit, which is probably the reason for the incompatibility, due to the fact that Spotify has dropped Safari support long time ago.

Explicitly requesting the Desktop view via iOS’ share sheet (or using the Puffin web browser) gives you a slightly wider layout, but there’s still no login option and no full-fledged web player.

So the question is, whether there is any workaround!? Preferably with included support for uBlock Origin... ;)

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The problem is that Safari on iOS does not support Encrypted Media Extension (a.k.a. DRM), so there is no way for Spotify to play the files without breaching license agreements.

Check: https://caniuse.com/#feat=eme

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+50

This appears to be an issue with the responsive design (possibly intentional) of the Spotify site.

I tested this on both iPadOS and iOS; v16.6 on both devices.

  • iPadOS loads the desktop site with no issues. The web player works without any problems.
  • iOS will not load the desktop site.
    • When no native (Spotify) iOS app is installed, the desktop site would fail to render or it would "glitch" while rendering
    • When the native iOS app is installed, the site regardless of whether the mobile or desktop site was requested would immediately launch the application.

It's a moot point.

So the question is, whether there is any workaround!? Preferably with included support for uBlock Origin..

There seems to be an issue with the responsive design/user agent detection/scripting on the site. I opened the site in Microsoft Edge on a MacBook Air running Ventura; meaning that I was no longer using WebKit, but the Chromium engine. What I found was (using Developer Tools) that the website would render and function using a screen dimension that simulated a tablet (iPad), whereas it would crash/glitch when rendered as an iPhone.

The animation below shows the glitching I experienced on both my (physical) iPhone and the MS Edge browser dimensions simulating an iPhone. Keep in mind, this was on a desktop browser running on macOS 13.5.1 where the viewport dimensions was the only variable that was modified.

enter image description here

Bottom Line...

The web player is not going to work on an iPhone (likely not on Android either; not tested) due to how it renders with those dimensions regardless if your browser requests the desktop site or not. It will however render on iPadOS on both Safari and Edge; both having various AdBlock extensions available.

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Try iCab http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icab-mobile-web-browser/id308111628?mt=8

It will allow you to set the "User Agent" of the browser to pretend that you are using a different web browser, so you can tell Spotify that you are using the "desktop" version of Safari on the Mac, or Firefox on the Mac, or even Chrome, etc.

You can check your browser's User Agent at http://ua.luo.ma/ too. If it says anything about "iPhone" then Spotify will probably give you the "Unsupported Browser"

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  • Tried iCab with a Chrome Mac User Agent and do indeed see the Desktop version. The Web Player option however is still missing. It's looks as if there’s at least one other hurdle to gain access to Spotify’s Web Player on iOS, besides screen resolution. Likely some JavaScript magic. Loading open.spotify.com/browse with JS disabled shows among others the following script: open.scdn.co/static/web-player.55123017.js Any further ideas/suggestions?
    – Dr. Woo
    Apr 29, 2019 at 17:20
  • Unfortunately I have exhausted my very limited knowledge in this area.
    – TJ Luoma
    May 3, 2019 at 22:22
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This is probably due to the version of Safari you're running. It is mentioned in Web player help - Supported web browsers that you need (for iOS):

  • Chrome 87 or above
  • Safari 13.0.3 or above

Safari should be fine, it works for me:

Screenshot of Spotify Desktop Web

Also, make sure you Request Desktop Site as explained in Customize your Safari settings on iPhone - Change display and privacy controls:

Tap the Page Settings button (Aa), then do any of the following:

  • See what the webpage looks like on a desktop computer: Tap Request Desktop Website (if available).

Emphasis mine

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