

CARTHING SPOTIFY COM FULL
The Android app’s settings screen does have a Car section, but it only contains a button to set up a Car Thing and text that reads “always pay full attention to the road and abide with all traffic regulations.” Spotify didn’t immediately respond to request for clarification from The Verge on whether it planned to retire Car View on all platforms.Īndroid Auto for phone screens can give you a rough approximation of Spotify’s Car View. Some Spotify customers are very unhappy about the change.Īt the moment, Car View still works on my iPhone, but not on my Android device. Some have also accused Spotify of removing Car View to sell its $80 Car Thing device, which acts as a display and remote control for the music streaming service and is currently only available to Premium subscribers via a waitlist. “We’re actively exploring a variety of new ways to deliver the best in-car listening experience”Ī follow-up comment from another moderator mentioned that Spotify was “also retiring certain features like in-car Now Playing View for Android,” again to make way for new features.Īs Android Police points out, this plan has upset many users - in the comments section for the post, people say that removing the Car View made it harder for them to use Spotify safely while driving. In order to do that, you can link your accounts and say ‘Hey Google, play Spotify’. This feature also works with Google Maps so you can navigate while listening to Spotify. While we work backstage on improving the experience, one alternative would be to listen hands-free via Google Assistant. Think of retiring car-view as something that needs to happen in an effort to make way for new innovations coming down the track. On the contrary, we’re actively exploring a variety of new ways to deliver the best in-car listening experience. This however doesn’t mean we don’t want to improve on how our users listen to Spotify while driving. We can confirm that we’re retiring the car view feature. It’s currently unclear if the feature is going away on all platforms or just Android, and while some users won’t miss it, many others are unhappy it’s being removed without a reasonable replacement.Ĭonfirmation of the change actually came back in October, when a Spotify moderator responded to a post on its community forum asking why the feature was missing. When officially launched, the “anticipated retail price” will be $80.Spotify says it’s retiring its Car View feature, which was introduced at the beginning of 2019 as a way to make the app less distracting and easier to control while driving ( via 9to5Google).

And the result is a kind of neat product with an odd look, a cool name, and a potentially fatal flaw.Ĭar Thing is available in limited release in the United States for free, with a $7 shipping and handling charge. It’s almost like Spotify built the voice control aspect of the product, and then lost faith. Will people use it while driving? Absolutely. And none of that looking at the screen should be happening, ideally, while you’re operating a multi-ton motor vehicle.Ĭan it be used while stopped? Absolutely. Playing is probably just a tap, as is pausing. Selecting requires looking at the screen. Use the dial to browse, select, play, pause, and discover.”īrowsing requires looking at the screen. “You can also browse deeper, curating the perfect soundtrack to wherever you’re headed. “Try the dial for a hands-on way to steer to the audio you love,” Spotify says.

And a massively flawed design choice at the same time.īecause while you can reach for the knob and grab it without looking - unlike a screen - the knob’s actual functionality includes almost nothing that you don’t still need your eyes for. Spotifyīut that’s also the Achilles heel of the product.
