The focus space music player: YouTube, Spotify and more

The focus space has a full music player. A mini player sits in the bottom-left corner (above the toolbar on phones); tap it to open the full player with artwork, title and progress, skip tracks, change the volume and see what’s up next. Switching between Home, Focus and Break or opening other panels never stops the music.

Getting started

1. In the focus space, tap Music in the toolbar (or press M).
2. Paste a share link and tap Play, or pick one of the Focus playlists.
3. Close the panel and the mini player keeps going. Tap the title to reopen the full player; tap ⌄ Minimize to pause and keep just the control bar.

Supported links:

Platform	What you can paste	What we can control for you
YouTube	Videos, live streams, playlists	Play / pause, seeking, volume, previous / next, shuffle, repeat, up next
SoundCloud	Tracks, playlists, profiles	Play / pause, seeking, volume, previous / next, shuffle, repeat, up next
Spotify	Tracks, albums, playlists, podcasts, artists	Play / pause and seeking (skip and volume live in Spotify’s player)
Apple Music	Songs, albums, playlists, stations	Controlled inside its player only
NetEase Cloud Music	Songs, albums, playlists	Controlled inside its player only
Bilibili	Videos (BV links)	Controlled inside its player only

Why the platform’s player stays on screen

The platforms require their player to stay visible while it plays: YouTube asks for at least 200×200 pixels, nothing covering it and no background playback, and Spotify asks for the artwork and track details to be shown. So while music plays you’ll see the platform’s player above the mini player, and Minimize pauses it (embed-only platforms stop). It also stays visible in Clear mode.

Working with the timer

Under Work with the timer in the music panel (all on by default):

• Pause music during breaks when a Pomodoro break starts.
• Resume when focus starts, fading back in where you left off.
• Fade out when a focus session ends over 8 seconds, then pause.
• Lower the music when an alert plays for a few seconds.

Fades and lowering the volume work with YouTube and SoundCloud. Spotify simply pauses and resumes.

Music and ambient sounds can play together, each with its own volume. Ambient sounds pause while Spotify plays (Spotify’s rules don’t allow mixing it with other audio) and come back when it stops.

Focus playlists

Focus playlists are public playlists and live streams picked for your content region ("Settings" → "Profile" → "Content region", learn more), such as lofi study streams on YouTube and Spotify’s own focus playlists. They’re public content on each platform; the music belongs to its creators and isn’t made by WidgetStore.

Saved, remembered and shortcuts

• Tap ♡ to save up to 20 favorites. When you’re signed in they sync with your focus settings across devices.
• Recent is kept on this device. Next time you open the focus space, the control bar brings back what you were listening to, and Play continues from where you stopped.
• Your keyboard’s media keys and the play controls on your lock screen and notifications work too, with title and artwork.

Key	Action
M	Open the music panel
Shift + M	Play / pause music
Shift + ← / →	Previous / next track
Shift + ↑ / ↓	Music volume

FAQ

Spotify only plays 30 seconds? Spotify gives a 30-second preview when you aren’t logged in. Log in inside the player, or at open.spotify.com in the same browser, and you’ll usually get full tracks. Browsers that block third-party cookies can also fall back to previews.

“This content can’t be played on other sites”? The creator turned off embedding. Try another video or playlist, or use Open in YouTube.