Spotify is a great app (that recently became even better thanks to a desktop design overhaul) but you know what could make it even better? Voice commands. Spotify has been testing a feature since 2019 that allows Spotify Premium users to issue orders to the music streaming app by saying, “Hey Spotify”. Word on the update went quiet right up until last night when it was discovered that Spotify was secretly rolling out the feature.
Why Spotify isn’t making a big fuss out of this admittedly cool feature is beyond us, but it’s always better to undersell and over-deliver. Scattered reports emerged detailing that Android users had received a push notification that when tapped would open Spotify which would then ask the user to allow the app access to their devices microphone. From there, saying something like, “Hey Spotify, play Happy Jazz playlist” would have you sorted.
Hey, listen!
According to TechCrunch, the things you can ask Spotify to play include, “artists, albums, songs and playlists by name”. You can also control the actual playback of the music or podcast by telling it to pause, skip, repeat or shuffle, among other commands. It’s not really that complicated but it’s still pretty cool, and especially useful in instances where you’re driving.
Of course, as with every cool feature, there’s a catch. By allowing, “Hey Spotify”, you’ll need to agree to send off your voice data and search returns to Spotify. This is so they can improve on the feature… and also share your information with other service providers. Blegh.
Still, if that doesn’t bother you then you have nothing to worry about! Just keep an eye on your Spotify app, for both Android and iOS, or for a push notification from Spotify itself. We all love convenience… although the sharing personal data we could do without.