When Spotify announced its stripped-down Car View mode in 2019, it seemed like a smart way to keep drivers from being distracted on the road. When you connect to your car via Bluetooth, unnecessary items such as menu buttons and album art are removed. Instead there were big buttons for pausing and playing music; jump to the previous or next track; or like a specific song. Refined! But I hope you haven’t gotten into it too much as Spotify has confirmed the feature is being “retired” according to a recently released support thread (via Android Police).
A Spotify moderator, who responded to a user who noted the feature had disappeared from their Android app, noted that Spotify “is actively exploring a variety of new ways to provide the best in-car listening experience”. They added that removing the car view was necessary to “make room for new innovation”. This is reasonable enough, but it does not make an excuse to dispose of a really useful security feature without a clear replacement.
The moderator suggested using Google Assistant (or Siri on iOS) to control Spotify hands-free, which would also work when navigating with Google or Apple Maps. And to be fair, so many people (including me) end up controlling the melodies on the street.
It could be that Spotify is depriveting Car View simply because there are so many other ways to handle music playback in cars. If you own a modern car with CarPlay or Android Auto support, you only interact with your dashboard display and never see Car View in action. Many vehicles that have been built in the last ten years also have some kind of media control on the steering wheel.
Billy Steele / Engadget
Of course, there is a more nefarious target as some Spotify users mentioned on the forum thread. It could be the company is trying to push people into Car Thing, its $ 80 display accessory. We found it a useful upgrade for older cars, but it also seemed redundant when you could just mount your phone and control Spotify directly. However, without the Auto View mode, this strange device suddenly seems to be more helpful. In such cases, however, the simplest explanation is usually that organizations find that certain features are not used frequently.
We have contacted Spotify for a full statement on Car View’s resignation and will update this if we hear anything.
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