Say goodbye to Spotify's Car View mode
If you've been an avid user of Spotify since 2019, you're likely familiar with the app's Car View mode, created to enhance the safety of users who enjoy listening to audio while driving. It eliminated all the distracting elements of the regular Spotify user interface, instead leaving in only primary functions to allow users to control their music while driving.
The simplified controls available on a song in Car View mode consist of big pause and play buttons (of course), skip to the next or rewind to the previous track, or like the current song.
It was quite a handy feature to have for the last three years since its introduction in 2019, but alas, it will be no more. According to a statement made by a moderator in a recent Spotify support thread, the app is removing this feature to "in an effort to make way for new innovations coming down the track."
"We can confirm that we're retiring the car view feature," said the moderator in response to a user who was asking why Car View had disappeared from his phone. "This however doesn't mean we don't want to improve on how our users listen to Spotify while driving. On the contrary, we're actively exploring a variety of new ways to deliver the best in-car listening experience."
As Engadgetsuggests, the deletion of Car View could have simply come as a response to generally declining use of the feature. Modern automobiles tend to come with built-in dashboard displays which, if compatible with Apple's CarPlay or Android Auto, render Car View obsolete—as drivers would only be interacting with their dash display, rather than their phone.
The moderator who made the revelation in the support thread, Ver, goes on to suggest that for the time being, users can make use of Google Assistant to replace Car View mode, to safely control their music hands-free while driving. This can be done easily by linking your Spotify account to your Google account, and telling your smart assistant to "Hey Google, play Spotify."
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