Speaker 1: Now Spotify kind of hardware click bait at the automotive industry when it announced and then launched in limited release its Spotify car thing. I mean, it's called the car thing. Like what even is that specifically loads of digital link was spilled much hype. Wow. Fast forward to today where Spotify's announced that the car thing is going two broader production and our colleague Lexi over at the CNET mothership already has a video where she digs into what it's like to live with this thing. But now that you can plunk down [00:00:30] $80 of your own to get one, I think it's worth the second look to dig into what is the Spotify car thing. And more importantly, what, isn't it
Speaker 1: A quick refresher for those who missed the first video, like really quick, the car thing is basically a Bluetooth remote control for the Spotify app that lives on your phone, the hardware mounts onto the dashboard of your vehicle with a magnetic and adhesive Mount or in the [00:01:00] CD slot, which you're not actually using. Anyway, it's 20, 22. Now, after a quick Bluetooth pairing on the touch screen, you'll find that you're able to select from your favorite artist, albums and playlist associated with your Spotify account. Now, in addition to the touch screen, which you can tap and swipe, there's also physical controls, a troll jog wheel that you can use for twisting and tapping a back button as well as five hardware buttons along the top edge four [00:01:30] of which are dedicated to quick presets for four of your favorite playlists. There's also voice command where you can just say, Hey, Spotify, to bring up your favorite songs or artists without ever have having to actually touch the device.
Speaker 1: Now, a fun byproduct of the fact that this is just a remote control is that well, there's no reason you have to actually use the car thing in your car. You could conceivably Mount it somewhere in your house as a secondary remote for Spotify [00:02:00] through say your home theater system though. I'm not sure why you would. And one of the things that Spotify's car thing is not, is a way to connect your phone to your car's audio system. It's just a remote control. And if your car doesn't already support Bluetooth for audio streaming or an auxiliary input, well, it's not gonna get you any closer to taking your tunes on the road. It's also not really an alternative to apple CarPlay. And for auto, I mean, it kind of is if you are a very heavy Spotify user, but those touchscreen services are gonna [00:02:30] give you better access to more kinds of audio streaming services and types of apps, as well as maps for navigation.
Speaker 1: Now, CNET has spoken with Spotify and its designers and engineers are looking into ways to add more functionality to the, the car thing that allows it to work with other apps outside of Spotify. But that's probably just gonna end up being something like play pauses and skip controls. You're probably not gonna see that level of deep integration with an app, like say audible or apple music like you would with Spotify's [00:03:00] own service. And if you decide to stop using Spotify, if say your favorite artist leaves the service over a misinformation controversy, well, you basically bought yourself an $80 magnetic paper weight. So should you buy the Spotify car thing? Well, if you love Spotify, yeah, but otherwise you should probably wait. You're probably better off either going whole hog and installing a receiver with Android auto or apple CarPlay. It's a little bit more expensive, but it's worth [00:03:30] the money or just invest in a good dashboard Mount for your phone.
Speaker 1: That way you could just use the Spotify app, which already has a built in car with hay, Spotify functionality. You don't actually have to buy this hardware to get that hands free connectivity. Oh, and if you have an Android phone running the latest version of the Android OS or Google assistant, there's already a dedicated OS wide car mode built into your phone that works with maps, messaging calls and other music [00:04:00] and podcasting apps. It's kind of like the Android auto that gets built into your dashboard, but it lives on your phone screen. It's a little buggy, but it's free. And like I said, Spotify says that it's dedicated to the car thing and its engineers are working on expanding the functionality of the product. So it's worth keeping an eye on and maybe revisiting in the future, who knows sometime down the line, it could end up being a much more flexible and much more functional product, but I don't like recommending a product based on what it could be.
Speaker 1: [00:04:30] I like to look at the product as it is when I form my opinion. It's kind of the safest bet. And as the car thing is today, well, unless you're a hardcore fan of Spotify who listen, you almost nothing but the service. Well, this is a pretty expensive way to interact with an app. You're probably better off waiting to see how those updates shake out in the future. And in the meantime, looking for either a more robust or a much less expensive way to bring your tunes on the road. So there you have it Spotify's car thing, largely [00:05:00] de Myst, be sure to head over to cnet.com, where we've got more information about the hardware itself in our full review, as well as interviews, which Spotify's designers and developers about the future of the product.
