The streaming landscape is evolving fast as the world sits at home due to the current coronavirus pandemic. With theaters shut and people practicing social distancing, it’s no surprise that platforms like Disney Plus are moving up movie releases for streaming.

But things weren’t always the same, and they could go back to their usual routine once cinemas start reopening and people start going to the movies. In this article, we’ll try and break down the timeline in which Disney movies come to Disney Plus after their theatrical release. We’ve taken into account examples of movie releases both pre- and post-pandemic, so you can get an idea of what’s the norm and how things are changing.

Disney Plus release schedule pre-pandemic

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Disney movies generally arrived on Blu-ray and DVD months before going on to streaming platforms. Previously, you could find a handful of Disney movies on Netflix after their disk releases, but that changed with the launch of Disney Plus last year.

Now, you can find not only Disney’s own set of movies on Disney Plus, you also get a whole catalog of titles from Pixar, Lucas Films, Marvel, 2oth Century Fox, and more.

When Disney Plus launched, a company executive told The Hollywood Reporter that Disney doesn’t plan on changing any release windows to bring movies sooner to Disney Plus.

Disney usually lets a movie run in theaters for about 90 days. It then comes to digital for paid purchases. This is followed by a Blu-ray and DVD release after two or three weeks. The movie finally goes up for streaming about four months after that. However, this timeline is not at all set in stone.

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Even before the pandemic, Disney was releasing movies on Disney Plus earlier than expected. For example, Frozen 2 hit cinema screens on November 22, 2019 and was expected to release on Disney Plus sometime in June 2020. However, the movie came to the streaming platform on March 14.

Similarly, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker released in cinemas in December 2019 and came to Disney Plus in early May 2020.

But there were still some films like Maleficent: Mistress of Evil that took a whole seven months after its theatrical release in October 2019 to reach Disney Plus in May 2020.

So as you can see, it’s really up to Disney when a movie should go from the silver screen to the streaming screen. In fact, Disney releases are going to be even more fluid given the pandemic situation.

Disney Plus release schedule post-pandemic

Since people are not going to theaters these days, streaming’s got a big boost as production companies look to get their work out somehow. In the wake of this pandemic, Disney can also be seen wavering from its usual theater-to-streaming schedule.

For instance, acclaimed musical Hamilton is coming straight to Disney Plus on July 3, months before its planned cinema debut. Another Disney original, Artemis Fowl – a sci-fi fantasy based on the book series by the same name – was set to arrive in theaters on May 29, but is now headed directly to Disney Plus on June 12.

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Disney Plus is still a relatively young service (debuting in November 2019), but it's quickly become one of the most popular streaming services in existence and continues to heat up as Disney brings its service …

That said, Disney isn’t giving up on theater releases just yet.

“We very much believe in the value of the theatrical experience overall to launch blockbuster movies,” Disney CEO, Bob Chapek said during a recent earnings call. “We’re going to evaluate each one of our movies on a case-by-case situation, as we are doing right now, during this coronavirus situation,” he added.

To that end, Disney has already rescheduled the theater premiere of Mulan, a live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1998 animated movie by the same name. It was supposed to release in cinemas on March 27. However, Disney recently confirmed that Mulan is now rescheduled for July 24. This too could change if the coronavirus situation remains as bad going forward.

So as you can tell, Disney Plus movie release dates are constantly shifting right now. We expect things to go back to the pre-pandemic release schedule once life returns to normalcy, but the one thing coronavirus has taught us is that we should be prepared for surprises. It’ll be really interesting to see how streaming services plan content in the near future. Will there be a day when big-budget blockbusters come to streaming screens first? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, if you’re not yet subscribed to Disney Plus and would like to become a member, you can do so by hitting the button below. Given how new movies are releasing faster on Disney Plus these days, now might be a good time to get onboard.

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Wondering how to change languages on Facebook? Here’s how to change language on Facebook in less time than it takes to restart your phone. It’s easy and fast, and Facebook has just about any language you could want, from English variants to Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, eight Indian languages, and more.

Sometimes you’ll want to fix an accidental language change, or just make a change to try learning a language, or help someone else switch to their native tongue. Whatever your reasons, it can be done in seven or fewer clicks.

Here’s everything you need to do to change your language on Facebook, and while this is in English, you can follow the same instructions and icons to switch to another language, or to English if you need.

How to change language on Facebook mobile app (Android or iOS):

1. Open the app, and hit the menu button at the top right. (It should look like three short horizontal lines stacked together, and is known as the hamburger menu.)
2. Scroll down to Settings & Privacy ().
3. You’ll see a list including Settings, Your Time on Facebook, and Language (). Hit Language ()
4. Choose your language. If you’ve given Facebook location access, it’ll prompt you with common languages in your area, rather than a list of languages in alphabetical order.
5. There’s no ‘save’ button: one tap on a language, and you’ll change your language.
6. Importantly, Facebook will then reload automatically. Done!

Optional: To change back, you’ll need to step through the options again.

How to change language on Facebook desktop or browser at facebook.com:

1. Open Facebook, and hit the small dropdown arrow button at the far top-right ()
2. Hit Settings & Privacy ().
3. You’ll see a list including Settings, Privacy Checkup, and Language (). Hit Language () .
4. Choose your language. Languages are in alphabetical order.
5. Hit save. Facebook will reload and you’ll be taken back to your Facebook homepage.
6. To change back, you’ll need to step through the options again.

That’s it! You’ve now changed your Facebook language.

Finally, Facebook still has at least one fun language option you can still change to that’s unexpected: upside-down English (English (uʍop ǝpᴉsd∩)). All this just you want to know a good language trick!

Related: Best Facebook apps

It’s time for the Sunday giveaway! Like every week, we’re giving away a brand new Android phone to one lucky Android Authority reader.

A big congratulations to the winner of last week’s Google Pixel 4 XL giveaway, Tony S. from California.

This week we’re giving away a brand new Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, brought to you by the DGiT Daily newsletter!

The DGiT Daily newsletter is a daily briefing focused on bringing you the best tech news and links to what’s happening all around the web. It doesn’t matter if it’s from The Wall Street Journal or the depths of a 41-tweet Twitter thread — we’ll find it, and tell you what it means.

The daily email arrives fresh at around 7 a.m. ET every day, and we’re committed to making sure it entertains with a brief, honest, authoritative, and never-too-serious look at the tech news of the day via our Senior Editor, Tristan Rayner.

The DGiT Daily also comes with a daily surprise segment you’ll have to read each day — you’ll get an idea by looking at our recent editions from this week: Dell’s new XPS 15 and XPS 17 from Thursday and Poco F2 Pro launched from Wednesday.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is our favorite of the S20 range, and that’s saying something. The crisp, bright display, top-notch performance, and all-day battery life are just a few of the features that make this one of the most well-rounded smartphones we’ve used in years.

The Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus, and Galaxy S20 Ultra all showcase powerful cameras. The S20 and the S20 Plus have almost the same camera configurations, including a 12MP main camera, a 64MP telephoto camera, a 12MP wide-angle camera, and a 10MP selfie camera.

The other specs of the Galaxy S20 Plus are equally impressive. It features a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen, the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, 12GB of RAM, and a large 4,500mAh battery. The ample 128GB storage is also expandable to up to 1TB. What more could you ask for?

To learn more about the Galaxy S20 Plus, check out our related coverage below.

• Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus review: Buy this one
• OnePlus 8 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus: Raising the bar
• Best Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus cases

Enter the giveaway here

Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus international giveaway!

Don’t miss: Anker Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro international giveaway

Winners gallery

• This is an international giveaway (except when we can not ship to your country).
• We can ship prizes to all regions in North America, Europe, and Australia. If you live in another region, depending on where you live, we may contact you to offer an alternative prize of equal or similar value to the smartphone offered in the giveaway.
• We are not responsible for lost shipments.
• We are not responsible if your giveaway prize malfunctions.
• You must be age of majority in your country of residence.
• We are not responsible for any duties or import fees that you may incur.
• Only one entry per person; please do not enter multiple email addresses. We will verify all winners and if we detect multiple email addresses by the same person you will not be eligible to win.
• We reserve all rights to make any changes to this giveaway.
• This giveaway is operated by Android Authority.
• The prize will ship when it is available to purchase.

More: Android Authority international giveaway FAQs

Opinion post by

Hadlee Simons

The Poco F2 Pro has finally been unveiled by Xiaomi, and it might be one of the cheapest flagship phones of 2020. But even before the official launch, enthusiasts were bemoaning the fact that it was a rebranded version of the Redmi K30 Pro.

Poco fans previously lashed out at Xiaomi earlier this year for rebadging an existing phone. The ~$210 Poco X2 was a Redmi K30 4G with a different logo. This move got some fans riled up.

It’s not the first time a company has rebranded a phone. In fact, Xiaomi frequently does this. So what gives?

Companies rebrand all the time

Rebranding is a frequent strategy in the smartphone space and is usually done because some brand names are more popular in specific parts of the world. For example, Huawei released a phone under the Maimang 6 name in China back in 2017, but Maimang isn’t really known outside of South East Asia. So that same phone was rebranded to the Mate 10 Lite in the West, and the Nova 2i in Malaysia. We’ve also seen the Huawei P40 Lite launch as such in EMEA markets, but as the Nova 6 SE in several other regions.

Also, companies want to build a completely new brand in a region. One effective way to do this is to share a design with the parent company or stablemate. For example, the Realme 1 received that name in India, but it was actually released as the Oppo A3 in China and several other markets. We’ve also seen Oppo and OnePlus frequently share design elements or entire designs, such as the OnePlus X and Oppo A30 (seen below).

Xiaomi itself has frequently conducted rebranding exercises, with the Chinese and Indian Redmi K20 series known as the Mi 9T series in Europe. We also saw the Mi CC9 and MiCC9 Pro leave China and become the Mi A3 and Mi Note 10, respectively.

That brings us to the latest turn of events, as the Xiaomi Redmi K30 Pro became the Poco F2 Pro.

What makes Poco different?

The Poco F1 was really a perfect storm for a debut brand family, as Xiaomi was able to not only craft a powerful flagship from scratch but also make it the cheapest Snapdragon flagship of the year. At ~$300, there really wasn’t much else like it. In fact, the only other similar devices on offer were the $420 Xiaomi Mi 8, $430 Asus Zenfone 5Z, and the $529 OnePlus 6.

It didn’t hurt that Xiaomi included very competent core specs for the most part, such as the aforementioned Snapdragon 845 high-end processor, at least 6GB of RAM, and a 4,000mAh battery. We also got a couple of extras, such as microSD storage, an IR blaster, a 3.5mm port (in a time where everyone was ditching it), and IR face unlock. In other words, Poco and Xiaomi set an incredibly high bar, and anything more than that ~$300 price tag would always be a difficult sell to Poco F1 owners.

There really was nothing like the Poco F1 when it was released back in 2018.

The Poco F1 was also a brand-new design for the company, going a long way to raising the bar even higher. This suggested to enthusiasts that future Poco devices would also offer unique designs. And I can see why, as Xiaomi took pains to say that Poco was a sub-brand, and then claimed it was a truly independent entity early this year. And wouldn’t an independent brand offer different designs?

Why it doesn’t really matter

Clearly the Poco F2 Pro is a Pocophone in name, but you can’t deny that it’s one of the best high-end phones of 2020 on paper, regardless of the name.

The device is one of the cheapest Snapdragon 865 phones available in the West right now. By comparison, the Realme X50 Pro 5G costs €599 (~$648) in Europe. Sure, the F2 Pro’s €499 (~$538) price tag is still a long way off the Poco F1’s price, but the flagship segment is seeing an unprecedented price increase in 2020.

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This general price increase is mostly chalked up to the Snapdragon 865 chipset, with Xiaomi saying the new chipset and bundled 5G modem in the Xiaomi Mi 10 was double the price of the Snapdragon 855 and its 4G modem. There’s little reason to doubt that a similar price increase is in effect for the Poco F2 Pro compared to the Redmi K20 Pro.

The Poco F1 is also viewed through rose-tinted glasses to a large extent. Yes, everyone remembers the price tag and powerful core specs. But few Poco fans want to bring up the mediocre camera setup, the LCD screen with a poor oleophobic coating, and the lack of NFC.

By comparison, the Poco F2 Pro delivers a quad camera setup, OLED screen, a bigger battery, NFC, splash resistance, and keeps that headphone port too.

It’s not as if the Poco F1’s original design was actually great either. Back in our original review, our own Bogdan Petrovan said the design felt cheaper than devices in its price bracket and even cheaper than some devices below its price segment. Ryan Thomas-Shaw also said the device felt cheaper than some entry-level phones in his Poco F1 retrospective. Plastic/polycarbonate can definitely look and feel premium (look at the Pixel 3a), but Xiaomi’s execution here left us wanting more.

Meanwhile, the Poco F2 Pro and even the Redmi K20 series both offered a better design, featuring pop-up selfie cameras, glass backs with gorgeous color swirls, and full-screen displays. It’s not like a pop-up selfie camera is better than a traditional smartphone design, but even the K20 or F2 Pro’s rear cover alone makes it feel more premium.

Loading poll

Don’t get me wrong. A Poco F1 2020 would certainly be an attractive proposition for many enthusiasts, updating the chipset, battery, and camera setup — the iPhone SE 2020 adopts a similar formula. But it’s unlikely to reach that ~$300 price tag owing to plenty of price pressure in 2020. Plus, consumer expectations have certainly shifted, with multi-camera setups and faster charging expected by many people. In other words, the Poco F2 Pro still seems like one of the best affordable flagships of the year so far — much like the original Pocophone was in 2018. We just need to look at it a little differently this time around, and that’s okay.

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It can get annoying when most of the emails you get are junk, spam, or simply unwanted. It’s time to take control of your inbox and start weeding out the culprits. Today we’ll show you how to block emails on Gmail.

How to block an email address on Gmail

If you know the email address you want to get rid of, you can block it. Once blocked, any emails coming from the sender will be sent straight to the Spam folder.

1. Go to Gmail.
2. Use your credentials to sign in.
3. Open an email sent by the address you want to block.
4. Click on the 3-dot More button on the top-right corner of the email.
5. Select Block [name or email address].

If you want to unblock an email address simply follow the same steps you see above. At the end you will be asked if you want to unblock them, as opposed to blocking them.

Unsubscribe from mass emails

If there’s a specific mass email subscription you want to get rid of, it’s not necessary to block the email sender completely. You can just unsubscribe from the email list by following the steps below.

1. Go to Gmail.
2. Use your credentials to sign in.
3. Open the mass email.
4. You will see an Unsubscribe button next to the sender’s name. It could also be labeled Change Preferences.
5. Select either and follow the prompts.

Help Gmail by reporting spam and malicious emails

Google does its best to keep spam and unwanted emails out of your inbox, but some can slip through the cracks. You can help Google better serve you and the community by reporting any email as spam or suspicious.

Report spam:

1. Go to Gmail.
2. Use your credentials to sign in.
3. Open the email or select it by checking the box next to it.
4. Click on the Report Spam button on top. It looks like a stop sign with an exclamation mark.

Report suspicious emails:

1. Go to Gmail.
2. Use your credentials to sign in.
3. Open the email.
4. Click on the 3-dot More button.
5. Select Report phishing.

Check out our other content to learn how to use Gmail efficiently!

Google made an announcement this week regarding its mess of music streaming services. YouTube Music users will soon be able to transfer their local music libraries from Google Play Music with just a single tap, making YouTube Music that much more powerful. However, Google also let us know that Play Music would be shuttered by the end of the year. That, unsurprisingly, is proving to be an unpopular decision.

I know a lot of Android Authority readers are Google Play Music subscribers, so I asked you if you were planning on switching to YouTube Music. Out of over 5,300 total votes across the website and Twitter, there’s a clear winner here.

Google Play Music users: Are you switching to YouTube Music?

Results

A massive 42.58% of Google Play Music users do not like YouTube Music and will not switch to the service. I can’t say I blame them — YouTube Music is still half-baked compared to Play Music, and many think it’s nothing more than a way for Google to keep YouTube minutes rolling in.

Roughly 22% of Android Authority readers have already switched to YouTube Music, while 12% are going to give it a try once more features are available. Another 22% of voters are entirely on the fence.

Notably, nearly half of all Twitter voters said they’re not switching to YouTube Music, while closer to 30% of website voters say they’re not switching. In general, website voters seem to be much more welcoming to YouTube Music, while Twitter users seem to be all-in on other music services already.

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Here’s what you had to say

Here are some of the best comments from last week’s poll explaining why they voted the way that they did:

• Ethan Sanchez: I feel like there’s a hyper train to hating YouTube music even though many haven’t in dwelled for at least a week. I actually grown to like it way more than gpm
• Billy Joseph: If it weren’t for the fact that I get YouTube premium, YT music and GPM for the whole family I would have switched to Spotify a long time ago
• Antony: YouTube is still packing features from GPM. Even only the upload songs part, YTM lacks song info edit and auto fill, download uploaded songs, and play count. When Google is saying they are gonna deliver something better, they deliver something half baked and half as good.
• Steven Iams: should option #5 be “we don’t have a choice”?
• Shizuma: Nope, not until i’m forced to anyways, I’ve tried it and it’s terrible compared to play music, and that’s saying a lot since it’s not like play music is that good as it is.
• John Wentworth: I will switch because really I don’t have another choice. I’d rather stay with GPM but we all know that is going to be axed soon. The icons in YT Music are too damn big. Grr
• james eriksen: I have both installed, and I’ve kind of switched to Youtube Music, but for there’s no way to upload audio, so still using Google Play Music for that. I’ve always found the recommendations to be worthless in either app.
• Learjet: I transitioned from GPM to YouTube Music a few months ago for the most part. I am impressed and now that my 40,000 uploaded songs are going to be in the YTM music locker I’m especially excited. The music locker is why I will never subscribe to any of the other popular services. Having my personal music collection available at my fingertips (on Android Auto, especially) is incredibly convenient.
• James E.: I have had Google Music since it first debuted — I was an original G1 user from back in the day. When Google started pushing YouTube music I dropped them for Apple Music.
• EeZeEpEe: I’ve been using YouTube Music as my main streaming service every since it became available within Android Auto. The switch to it was always inevitable and the only reason I kept Google Play Music was to playback old workout videos that I ripped the audio from DVDs.

That’s it for this week. As always, thanks for voting, thanks for the comments, and don’t forget to let us know what you thought of the results below!

The basic premise of Spotify and Tidal is the same. Both allow you to stream music, create playlists, download songs for offline listening, and discover new tracks based on your personal taste, among other things. However, there are loads of big and small differences between the two services.

To help you decide which streaming service comes out on top in the Tidal vs Spotify battle, we’ve rounded up all the major differences between them. These include everything from audio quality and pricing to music discovery and social features. Let’s dive in.

Tidal vs Spotify: Music discovery

When it comes to finding new tracks to listen to, both streaming services do a great job. You can browse music by genres (dance, country…), moods and activities (party, relax…), and use the radio feature to discover songs and artists that are similar to the ones you’re into. Both are also good at suggesting brand new tracks based on your personal taste.

The two services are similar when it comes to music discovery, but not the same. Spotify has the popular Discover Weekly feature, which is basically a curated playlist containing the songs from artists and genres you’re listening to. You get a new one every Monday that contains 30 tracks. Additionally, the service also creates up to six daily mixes for you based on your listening habits.

Tidal Rising connects you with up-and-coming artists from around the world.

Tidal, on the other hand, doesn’t have a weekly playlist. But it does offer up to eight playlists, each of which revolves around a specific genre you’re into. The service also has a feature called Tidal Rising that shows you the tracks and albums from up-and-coming artists from around the world. Then there’s the “Top” feature that gives you access to Billboard’s top songs by genre and a selection of the best tracks, albums, as well as songs of the last decade.

Again, both Spotify and Tidal do a great job at music discovery. However, I think Spotify does it a bit better. The main reason is that it offers a lot more playlists for more or less every genre out there. Even though Tidal is very hip-hop heavy (the service is owned by Jay-Z), it has just 32 hip-hop playlists, while Spotify has 54 of them. Spotify also has way more top charts available that list the best songs by country.

So the Swedish streaming giant wins this round, although the difference between the two isn’t massive. I’m a Tidal user and am happy with the music discovery features that are available, although I’d love to see a feature similar to Spotify’s Discover Weekly as well as more playlists.

Tidal vs Spotify: Content

Tidal has a leg up on Spotify when it comes to library size. It boasts over 60 million tracks, which is 10 million more than its biggest competitor. However, quantity isn’t everything. It’s the quality that counts, which is where the two are neck and neck in my experience. All of my favorite songs and artists are available on both platforms.

Tidal does a better job when it comes to exclusives, though. Thanks to Jay-Z’s connections and influence, a lot of famous artists like Beyonce and Rihanna released their albums/songs on Tidal first, before publishing them on competing services months down the line.

However, the main difference in content you have to be aware of is that Spotify is great for podcasts, while Tidal is great for videos. You’ll find over a million podcast titles on Spotify. Popular or niche, there’s a good chance the podcasts you’re into are on Spotify. This is great news, as you don’t need a separate app for podcasts.

Tidal also offers podcasts, but its selection is small to say the least. There are less than 20 of them available, and a lot of them are very hip-hop centric. You won’t find popular podcasts like This American Life on Tidal.

What you will find are a bunch of videos — more than 250,000 of them. And they are front and center, thanks to the “Videos” option in the main navigational tab. The selection of content includes music videos, live performances, and various music-related movies and documentaries — a lot of which are exclusive to the service. You also get access to your very own Video mixes (up to eight of them) that list the songs/music videos you’re into.

Spotify also has videos, but they don’t play as significant a role as with Tidal. There’s no dedicated section for videos, for example. You can come across videos when searching for an artist or song, and that’s about it. I wasn’t able to dig up exactly how many videos are available on Spotify, which likely means there aren’t too many of them. If there were, Spotify would promote them a lot more.

Tidal vs Spotify: Sound quality

Sound quality is where Tidal has Spotify beat. The streaming service offers four audio settings: Normal, High, HiFi, and Master. Normal is designed to reduce data usage and comes in handy with those on a cellular network with a limited data plan. The High setting strikes a nice balance between audio quality and data usage by streaming at 320kbps over AAC.

Then there are HiFi and Master, both of which are part of Tidal’s most expensive plan — more on this in the next section. HiFi recordings are CD-quality lossless FLAC files, which means you’re benefiting from 44.1kHz/16bit audio files.

Master Quality Authenticated (MQA), on the other hand, promises high-resolution (96kHz/24bit) audio delivered via FLAC or WAV file. Any media labeled as MQA under Tidal means that it was directly authenticated by the artist. But keep in mind that not all songs are available in this quality. Also, you’ll need high-quality headphones to take advantage of the HiFi and MQA settings — the cheap earbuds that shipped with your phone won’t do the job.

Spotify tops out at 320kbps.

Spotify offers five audio settings: Automatic, Low, Normal, High, and Premium. Audio quality tops out at approximately 320kbps (Premium setting), which is the same as Tidal’s High mode. Spotify doesn’t offer lossless streaming like Tidal, so it’s not the best choice for audiophiles.

Tidal wins this one hands down, but if you’re not a hardcore audiophile, you’ll be happy with streaming at 320kbps on Spotify. It sounds great and you don’t need expensive headphones to take advantage of the quality.

Tidal vs Spotify: Plans and pricing

First things first: you can use Spotify for free. Yes, the streaming giant has a free plan available that’s supported by ads, but there are many limitations in place. You can only play music in shuffle mode and can skip tracks up to six times per hour. You also can’t download music for offline listening.

If you’re serious about your music, the free plan won’t cut it. You’ll have to upgrade to a premium plan, which will set you back $9.99 per month, or $4.99 if you’re a student. There’s also a family plan available for $14.99 that allows for up to six accounts. Additionally, Spotify has a Premium Duo plan on offer aimed at couples, but that’s available in a limited number of markets for now — the US is not one of them.

Read next: Why I’m an avid Spotify user despite dubious audio quality

Tidal doesn’t have a free plan. To use it, you’ll have to pay up. Its pricing strategy is similar to Spotify’s, but to a point. A basic subscription costs $9.99 per month, while a family plan for six accounts goes for $14.99 per month. Students also get a discount, with a monthly subscription costing them $4.99 per month. So, no differences here.

However, Tidal also has a HiFi plan that offers higher quality streaming — check previous section for details — and costs around double. So, the basic subscription comes in at $19.99 per month, a family plan goes for $29.99 per month, while students have to pay $9.99 per month.

Additionally, Tidal also offers a discount to those who are or have served in the US military, which Spotify does not. A basic subscription goes for $5.99, while the HiFi plan is priced at $11.99 per month.

If you’re a military man or woman, Tidal is the best option for you, if price is the only factor. Otherwise, the two services cost exactly the same. If you want higher quality audio streaming, you’ll have to go with Tidal, but be prepared to pay double.

Tidal vs Spotify: Social features

Spotify is a lot more social than Tidal. You can check out exactly what your friends are listening to, which is a great way to discover new music. You can also share your favorite songs on social networks including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Another great social feature that I like is the ability to see how many monthly listeners a certain artist has. This can be used for comparison purposes, allowing you to figure out which ones are the most popular among Spotify users. You can also see how many followers playlists have, which helps decide which one to try out.

Tidal, on the other hand, allows you to share the song you love to social media. That’s more or less it. There are no other social features available. You can’t see what your friends are listening to or how popular certain artists and playlists are. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing depends on your preference, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind.

Tidal vs Spotify: Other differences

There are a bunch of other smaller differences between the two services — each one has a few features you won’t find on the other.

For example, Spotify has a sleep timer available that will stop playing music after a specified amount of time. This will make sure the music won’t play all night long while you’re sleeping. It also has a Crossfade feature that lets you create a seamless transition between songs, and gapless mode, which tries to eliminate the pause after one song ends and a new one starts.

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Spotify also works with Google Maps and Waze — Tidal only supports Waze. This means that while you’re navigating, you can play, pause, or skip tracks without leaving the app. The last thing worth mentioning is that Spotify also lets you play local files that are on your device, which its competitor does not.

On the other hand, Tidal has better Credits pages for songs — they show more detailed info. The service also pays artists a lot more than Spotify, although not everyone cares about this.

Tidal has a better UI but falls behind Spotify when it comes to search capabilities.

Tidal’s user interface (UI) is arguably better. It looks nicer and is easier to navigate. It has a dark mode by default that looks striking, especially paired with the contrasting blue accents. Then there’s Tidal X, which connects people with their favorite artists via live-streamed concerts and other events.

Another difference worth highlighting is the search capabilities. Here’s where Spotify is the clear winner. If you misspell the name of an artist or song (example: Avvici instead of Avicii), the app is smart enough to know what you’re looking for and will show you the relevant results. Tidal, on the other hand, will show you a few unrelated search results or nothing at all.

And let’s not forget about availability. Spotify is currently available in 79 countries, while Tidal does business in 56 countries.

Tidal vs Spotify: Which one is right for you?

There’s no clear winner here — both Tidal and Spotify are fantastic music streaming services. Which one is best depends on the extra features that bring more value to you.

Spotify has a free plan, offers more playlists, is slightly better at music discovery, and is packed with social features. It also gives you access to loads of podcasts and comes with several great features including Google Maps integration and crossfade. If all or just some of these things are important to you, Spotify is the way to go.

You can't go wrong with either one.

Tidal, on the other hand, gives you access to a ton of videos ranging from live performances to music videos. It also has better sound quality — if you’re willing to pay for it — offers a discount for those in the military, and sports a better UI. And let’s not forget about great features like Tidal X and Tidal Rising. If you find more value in these features than the ones offered by Spotify, Tidal is the way to go.

If you’re still undecided regarding which one is the better fit for you, take advantage of the free trials the services offer. Hands-on experience will help you make your purchase decision. Tidal currently offers a 30-day free trial, while Spotify is even more generous with its three-month free trial.

These are the main differences between Spotify and Tidal, although there are a few other smaller ones as well. If we’ve overlooked any major ones, feel free to let us know in the comments.