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When you buy the $90 Spotify's Car Thing, you should expect it to work as a standalone device. You Still Need a Phone, a Data Connection, and a Spotify Premium Account And once you're stationary, it's far easier to type on your smartphone than browse through hundreds or thousands of songs in your Spotify collection.Ĥ. You should safely stop and park if you're looking for a specific song or playlist. The control dial makes browsing for songs and playlists easier while driving, but you shouldn't fiddle with your Car Thing (or any other device) while at the wheel. And while assigning specific playlists to the physical buttons is convenient, you can also easily create home screen shortcuts to your favorite Spotify playlists, at least on Android. You can use Siri or Google Assistant to play songs on the Spotify app. While the Car Thing had the 'Hey Spotify' voice command, a large control dial, and five physical buttons-four of which you can customize-most users are fine with using their smartphones. The Spotify smartphone app is already easy to navigate, and the huge screens on most phones nowadays make it far more effortless.
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Another reason Car Thing didn't take off was that many Spotify users don't see the need for it.
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