I think the argument is that they already have spotify downloaded and are probably already using it. So why NOT use it? Why bother with a dedicated app?
Spotify is also probably more feature-filled than the average crap app thrown on the appstore for quick money as a whitenoise maker. For example the ability to download or send to speakers (like Sonos, Alexa, for example). Plus Spotify has greater selection of noises (yes there are MANY different types of white noise). Plus you can easily switch to your other podcasts and songs when you want.
I for one am an avid whitenoise listener on spotify throughout the day. I will listen to one type of whitenoise in the morning, then listen to a podcast episode, switch to a different type of white noise for a while, then some ambient noises, maybe some actual music around lunchtime, some more soft whitenoise after lunch to focus, another podcast at the end of the day. Doing it all in Spotify has value. Could I switch apps if I had to...? Sure. But a fully-featured music app is a natural place for long tracks of audio, so it makes sense to have it all together.
>So why NOT use it? Why bother with a dedicated app?
same reason as any other enshittified website as of late: you lose control and at some point they will make it painful for you to use stuff you like, because your convinence is not necessarily profitable.
If you are fine paying them $15 a month or ads (and yeah, that's the sticking point here: ads in the middle of your white noise seems to defeat the purpose f white noise) or whatever for those vast variety of white noise and the loss of control, I guess it's a successful business transaction. But I say this as a fogey that still prefers to have MP3's on my phone, so I don't know what the modern users want.
> Could I switch apps if I had to...? Sure.
glad you could. I dont get that sense from many users in other big apps, sadly. That's why they can scheme like this; they know angry fogey's like me are the minority and quickly replaced.
I don't know if you've ever been in a very noisy environment, but the tinny speakers on your android/iPhone absolutely won't cut it if you need to drown out lower frequency sounds - so for me, it's extremely convenient to be able to instruct my smart speaker to open my Spotify brown noise playlist.
For Android users, the Google Assistant can produce white noise, shore sounds, etc.
You should probably use an app though. Noise doesn't compress well, which means that you can get strange artifacts when it is compressed from the server to you, and then from your phone to a BT device. An app playing from hardwired or internal speakers is best.
There is a good app called Chroma Doze. It lets you tune the noise to the exact spectrum needed for your situation. It also blends the noise very well so that there is no loop heard. Plenty of apps/devices think that 3-4 seconds of noise looped is enough, but one you hear it, you can't unhear the loop.
There’s a quick way to access all of this if you’d rather not dive into menus every time you want to turn on white noise. Once you’ve set your preferred sound from the options above, follow these steps:
Navigate back to the Accessibility menu.
Scroll down to the bottom and tap Accessibility Shortcut (under General).
Tap Background Sounds to select it from the list.
This will set white noise as your accessibility shortcut so your preferred background sound will play anytime you triple-click the side button, even with the screen locked. You can map this function to Back Tap, too, if you prefer.
It can be toggled on and off in the pull down menu, wherever you are. It also detects when something else is playing and can lower the volume to a configurable level (or turn off completely). Other than that I can’t think of any, but I like it well enough that I don’t use an app. I especially like the rain sound, which also happens to drown out voices very well when combined with ANC.
