Spotify gets touch previews and - finally - a 'recently played' list

As much as we enjoy Spotify's curated content, a playlist called 'Almost Easy Listening' with a picture of a cat on a box doesn't reveal much about what's to come.

So Spotify is sorting this problem with one of its latest features, Touch Preview. As the name suggests, you'll now be able to hear a short segment of any song, playlist or album by simply holding your finger on the screen.

And if Spotify is already playing something, it'll simply pause that song and start previewing the other, automatically resuming when you're done. Spotify's product director Dave Price told TechRadar that the preview 'moment' for each song is selected by an algorithm that determines the optimum moment of the average tune.

Furthermore, Spotify is also introducing a new swipe-to-save feature to make it even easier to save and queue the songs you like - simply swipe left to save to Your Music or right to queue it. Swiping left isn't the definitive gesture of rejection, despite what tinder might have you believe.

Both of these features are coming to Spotify for iOS, rolling out starting today. Spotify told us that it is actively working to bring them to Android and Windows Phone in the future too.

History lesson

But there's one final new feature, coming to all platforms, that Spotify is curiously keeping quite low key about: its 'recently played' list. It shouldn't do, because it's just as exciting as the other stuff, perhaps more so for a lot of people.

While it won't display the individual tracks, the 'recently played' section will provide a chronological list of every album, artist and playlist you've recently listened to. It's something we've been wanting for a long time, so we're pleased to see Spotify finally delivering.

Expect to see that feature appear in the coming days, whether you're using Spotify on iOS, Android or Windows Phone.