Spotify to Test Voice

Spotify is trying to make commuting more bearable for Americans. According to their blog post, “Americans spend 70 billion hours behind the wheel each year.” In an effort to make those hours more entertaining, they are thinking of launching a voice-activated device for your car to control audio while you drive. Right now, they’re calling it Car Thing. The platform recently ran tests to try and “learn more about people’s listening habits and preferences to help create an unparalleled experience for [their] users.”

Spotify’s ‘Car Thing’ Test

A blog post from Spotify goes into more detail about the tests they’re conducting. Here’s what you need to know:

Spotify's Car Thing tests and what's been currently uncovered.

We don’t have many details on this so-called Car Thing yet; it seems very preliminary. This has been a potential device for the audio platform company since last year, but no concrete developments are confirmed. Moreover, Car Thing is an interesting potential device, but there’s a lot of competition out there with voice devices from tech giants like Google or Amazon.

The platform continues to test out new features beyond Car Thing. They’re currently also in the process of testing a live lyric feature in the United States, so it definitely sounds like Spotify has a lot up their sleeve for 2021.