![]() ![]() Unlike other info-tainment dashboard units enabled with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, which give you access to maps and other services, this one only does one thing: Play Spotify. If you’re wondering to yourself how this is any different from just mounting your phone on your dash, you aren’t alone. If it gets a wide release, it will retail for $80. For now, it’s a limited release, available for free to select users who sign up to receive it (and pay for shipping costs). You also need a Spotify Premium account to use Car Thing. You then connect your phone to your car stereo in whichever way you’ve been doing that so far (Bluetooth, aux input, or USB). You power it over USB and connect it to your phone over Bluetooth. It features a four-inch touchscreen, a dial for menu navigation, and most importantly, four microphones, which can be used to issue voice commands. But if you’re looking to spend $80 to bring Spotify to your car, just spend that money on a really, really nice phone mount instead.So, what exactly is it? Officially announced today (April 13), Car Thing is a Spotify controller that can be mounted in your car. If Car Thing offered navigation of some kind - say, via a Google Maps integration - there might be some convenience to it as a replacement for your phone’s screen. But as a Spotify stan, I just do not understand what Spotify was thinking. I’m ultimately here to figure out if and when something is worth your time and money. Usually, spending some time with a product gives me insight into the best ways to use it and the sort of workflow it enables. And even then, I hope you never wear sunglesses, because you can't read the screen if they're polarized. But, if you’re in the latter camp, Car Thing’s dependency on your phone means you’re just better off using your phone to do the same things instead - unless, for some reason, you really want a dedicated screen for just Spotify and you don’t need navigation. If you’re in the former camp and your car has Android Auto, Car Thing seems entirely superfluous to me. Spotify’s voice commands are also much more limited compared to the Google Assistant, and you can’t have messages read back to you or fire off important responses with your voice.Īs it applies to the Car Thing, there are basically two kinds of cars out there: Those with modern infotainment systems that support things like Android Auto and those that don’t. Although you can set up custom automation triggers via things like Tasker to enable a do not disturb mode, the Car Thing also doesn’t mute unnecessary notifications, as driving mode does. ![]() Car Thing’s single-purpose use offers too many shortcomings over simply using your phone in a mount with either the Assistant’s driving mode, the now-deprecated standalone Android Auto, or even just Google Maps/Waze and the music service integration bundled into each.įor one, Car Thing doesn’t offer navigation, and though you can fire up Google Maps separately on your phone and have it read out turn-by-turn directions mixed in with your music, you don’t have the benefit of seeing them on the screen as you would with your phone in a mount or Android Auto. I’ve tried to dance around different ways of saying that, but there aren’t really any. There’s a home screen that shows a mix of recommended content, a “Voice” tab that shows things you’ve searched for related to recent vocal queries, and a Your Library tab where all your liked songs and playlists live. ![]() If you’ve used the Spotify app on any platform, the interface should feel immediately familiar, with side-scrolling lists and identical commands and features. Navigating around the Car Thing interface is surprisingly simple, and there are a few ways you can do it between the screen, voice, and buttons. As soon as your phone connects to whatever mechanism you use for audio, playback will start wherever you last left off. Once things are correctly configured, your phone will automatically connect to the Car Thing when it’s powered on - If you’re not doing anything unusual, that means when you get into your car and start it. ![]() You can also trigger the setup process manually via the app in Settings -> Car Thing to pair an already-set-up Car Thing to a new device, but just pairing the new phone in the Bluetooth settings menu seems to do the job fine, too. The first-time steps also guide you through how to mount the phone to your car, but that should be a self-explanatory process for most people. When you plug it in for the first time, the screen displays a QR code you can scan with your phone that takes you to the app and through the process to pair it with your phone via Bluetooth. ![]()
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