diff --git a/astropy/utils/console.py b/astropy/utils/console.py
index 797859d8ba6..3d3f48500ef 100644
--- a/astropy/utils/console.py
+++ b/astropy/utils/console.py
@@ -831,7 +831,7 @@ class Spinner:
 
         with Spinner("Reticulating splines", "green") as s:
             for item in enumerate(items):
-                s.next()
+                s.update()
     """
     _default_unicode_chars = "◓◑◒◐"
     _default_ascii_chars = "-/|\\"
@@ -880,6 +880,11 @@ def __init__(self, msg, color='default', file=None, step=1,
 
         self._silent = not isatty(file)
 
+        if self._silent:
+            self._iter = self._silent_iterator()
+        else:
+            self._iter = self._iterator()
+
     def _iterator(self):
         chars = self._chars
         index = 0
@@ -912,10 +917,7 @@ def _iterator(self):
             index = (index + 1) % len(chars)
 
     def __enter__(self):
-        if self._silent:
-            return self._silent_iterator()
-        else:
-            return self._iterator()
+        return self
 
     def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, traceback):
         file = self._file
@@ -931,6 +933,24 @@ def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, traceback):
             color_print(' [Failed]', 'red', file=file)
         flush()
 
+    def __iter__(self):
+        return self
+
+    def __next__(self):
+        next(self._iter)
+
+    def update(self, value=None):
+        """Update the spin wheel in the terminal.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        value : int, optional
+            Ignored (present just for compatibility with `ProgressBar.update`).
+
+        """
+
+        next(self)
+
     def _silent_iterator(self):
         color_print(self._msg, self._color, file=self._file, end='')
         self._file.flush()
@@ -997,7 +1017,6 @@ def __init__(self, total, msg, color='default', file=None):
             self._obj = ProgressBar(total, file=file)
 
     def __enter__(self):
-        self._iter = self._obj.__enter__()
         return self
 
     def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, traceback):
@@ -1008,10 +1027,7 @@ def update(self, value):
         Update the progress bar to the given value (out of the total
         given to the constructor.
         """
-        if self._is_spinner:
-            next(self._iter)
-        else:
-            self._obj.update(value)
+        self._obj.update(value)
 
 
 def print_code_line(line, col=None, file=None, tabwidth=8, width=70):
diff --git a/docs/changes/utils/11772.api.rst b/docs/changes/utils/11772.api.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..36942ee937c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/changes/utils/11772.api.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Updated ``utils.console.Spinner`` to better resemble the API of
+``utils.console.ProgressBar``, including an ``update()`` method and
+iterator support.