Spotify, one of the more popular streaming music services, is currently working on a rather interesting new feature. First spotted by a reddit user, it appears that Spotify is working on an Auto Mode or a Driving Mode. As you can likely tell by the name, this mode would appear while you’re driving. The idea here is to make it easier to press buttons on your phone’s display while driving without being distracted. Similar to what Android Auto does.
The feature consists of large buttons, with a voice button in the center at the bottom and then forward and back buttons on either side of that. While it’s unclear right now, it’s likely that the microphone icon is used for telling your phone what music you want it to play. Like for instance a certain playlist or radio station. You can also swipe through different albums, playlists and such. Which are much larger, and only one fits on the entire display, which is really large. But the purpose here is to allow you to tap that playlist without being distracted from the road. The user that took the screenshots below, shows the feedback page that Spotify links to in its app. Apparently this was meant for Spotify employees to test, and not the general public. There are quite a few people on reddit stating that they got this update recently too. It’s part of the v8.4.7.1108 update, apparently.
Spotify is doing what it can to make it easier to stream music in the car, but it looks like the Android Auto setup is actually better, at least according to users on reddit. The Android Auto setup is easier to use, as well as having more functionality than what Spotify has as of right now. Of course, it’s very possible that could change before this feature rolls out to everyone though. Spotify is compatible with Android Auto, so it’s a bit odd as to why they are working on their own Auto Mode for the app. Perhaps there aren’t a lot of people using Android Auto and Spotify – although there are currently some bugs with it in Android Auto with some Verizon smartphones like the Galaxy S8.
