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It’s a thin display with a sizable dial on the front. An image of Spotify's Car Thing the company released in 2019.Ĭar Thing is a device that’s slightly smaller than an iPhone 11, in almost every dimension. Around the same time, the company began adding Car View to its apps: a feature that switches to a simplified player interface when it detects your phone is connected to your vehicle over Bluetooth. The Financial Times report mentioned voice control features, but added new info about preset buttons for playlists and Bluetooth connectivity. All the details from those rumblings turned out to be an accurate description of the Car Thing released this month. In 2019, reports indicated Spotify was ready to ship an in-car player. The company didn’t comment at the time, and it’s unclear if any units of this first circular device ever made it out into the wild. It offered a few Reddit users the opportunity to try a compact device that reportedly featured voice control and 4G connectivity. Spotify first tipped its hand on an in-car music player in 2018. I’ve spent two weeks with Car Thing in my car (obviously), and can tell you one thing - this dedicated Spotify player is really more of a controller for the app on your phone. Even though the company revealed the full details on Car Thing earlier this month, it’s only a “limited release” right now. Many cars can access Spotify through Android Auto, Apple CarPlay or built-in apps - Car Thing was mainly helpful for people with older vehicles who wanted a music streaming upgrade, but didn't want to mount their phone.After years of rumors, confirmation and vague descriptions, Spotify has finally made its first piece of hardware available to select users. It was effectively a Spotify player for cars that didn't have streaming functionality, and served as an informative experiment for the company. Spotify first shared word of Car Thing in 2019, but the finished product only reached the broader public early this year following several months of invitation-only sales. You can still buy the Car Thing for $50 (down from the usual $90) as of this writing. The company said it still "unlocked helpful learnings" from the device despite its brief history, and that the car remained an "important place" for audio. The withdrawal hurt Spotify's gross profits.Įxisting Car Thing units will still work as expected, Spotify said. In a statement to Engadget, a company spokesperson pinned the decision on "several factors" that included customer demand and supply chain problems. As part of its earnings data, the streaming service revealed that it stopped manufacturing its Car Thing player. Spotify's less-than-stellar quarter can be partly blamed on a decision to exit the hardware business.