Spotify rolls out its own voice assistant to iOS and Android users

Spotify currently seems to be making its own voice assistant available for Android and iOS users. This allows Spotify users to use voice commands, for example, to play music and open playlists.

Several media outlets have gotten the feature working, including GSM Arena and 9to5Mac. It may be a phased rollout. Users who have access to the feature can activate the digital assistant by saying “Hey Spotify.” The voice assistant only works when the Spotify app is open. The feature allows users to play music from certain artists, among other things. Users can also pause music or skip tracks through the feature.

Spotify has allowed Premium users to search for music via voice commands for some time, but for this users must first press an icon, so this function is not completely hands-free. Spotify also already works with several other voice assistants, including Apple’s Siri, the Google Assistant and Bixby from Samsung. With this, users could already have albums or individual songs played via voice commands. That also works outside the Spotify app.

Spotify may soon come with its own hardware with support for Hey Spotify. The company announced a Car Thing car accessory in 2019. An official render of that device appeared in the service’s iOS app earlier this month. In January, the accessory surfaced at the American FCC. Spotify already stated at the announcement in 2019 that the Car Thing device would support voice commands.