Spotify Enforces In-Person QR Scans on Family Plans—and Users Are Already Bypassing It

Spotify is making it much harder to split a Family plan with friends who live across town. The company is actively testing a new verification check that forces people on shared plans to scan a live QR code in person to prove they actually live at the same address as the main account holder.

How the new dynamic QR code check works

Subscribers on Reddit started noticing sudden address verification prompts when using Spotify away from their home address. To pass the check, the main plan manager and the account member have to scan a QR code between their phones. But there’s a catch: the QR code refreshes every few seconds, making it impossible to just take a quick screenshot and text it over to someone (via Android Authority).

According to Spotify, members get a strict seven-day window to complete the scan once the alert lands in their app. If you miss the window or can’t finish verification, Spotify automatically drops your account down to the ad-supported Free tier. To make matters worse, you also get hit with a 12-month ban from joining any other shared Family or Duo plans, leaving an individual paid plan as your only ad-free option.

Subscribers find a screen-sharing workaround

Even with dynamic QR codes refreshing every few seconds, users are already finding clever ways around the check. Reports popping up on tech forums show people bypassing the in-person requirement by using live screen-sharing over video calls. By streaming the plan owner’s phone display to a laptop or TV, the off-site member can simply point their phone at that second screen to scan the live code from miles away.

A long battle over account sharing

This isn’t the first time Spotify has tried to clamp down on account sharing. The service tested GPS location checks back in 2018 and updated its global terms in 2019 to require periodic location checks, though user pushback over privacy concerns forced them to back off.

Other music and video streaming services already enforce household rules using periodic Wi-Fi check-ins and location monitoring. By pushing off-site family members off shared accounts, platforms hope to turn casual users into individual subscribers and boost average revenue per user across the board.

The post Spotify Enforces In-Person QR Scans on Family Plans—and Users Are Already Bypassing It appeared first on Android Headlines.