How to use an Android phone as account agnostic connect player?

[bolfh]

how can I use an Android phone as a Spotify Connect player?

I don't want it to be bound to a Spotify account, as my wife and I want to access it alternately.

To be clear: I'm talking about a phone connected to a stereo system, to be controlled by two other smartphones running the Spotify app. Think of it as a streaming receiver like an Arylic Up2stream or WiiM Mini Streamer.

[Alex]

Hi there @bolfh,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the Community!

Currently there can be only one stream of music per Spotify account. This means that if your personal account is linked to the speaker/receiver you will be able to control the music from your mobile phone. If your wife then wants to play music on the streamer from her phone, she'd have to connect and activate her Spotify account on the device. I'm not entirely sure that this receiver can automatically switch between the two different Spotify accounts. This is something you'd have to enquire with the manufacturer support.

Alternatively, if possible you can link a third phone + Spotify account to the receiver and use that as a remote for the home sound system.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you've got more questions.

[bolfh]

of course, we don't want to have more than one stream at a time on our stereo.

And yes - speakers or TV sets with Spotify connect can easily deal with alternating connections. That's what I mean by "account agnostic".

The "third phone" shall not be the remote but the player. Our two phones with our two Spotify accounts shall control the third phone.

[Lyubka]

Hey @bolfh,

Thank you for getting back to us!

It's currently not possible to use your phone for playback if there is no account bound to it.  As a workaround we can suggest starting a Group Session. You can easily set it up by logging with one of your accounts on the third device, connecting it through Bluetooth to the sound system you'd like to use and starting a Spotify group session on speaker. 

Note: Make sure that all devices are on the same Wi-Fi network.

More info about this feature can be found in this article. 

Hope this helps.

Cheers 🙂 

[bolfh]

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@Lyubka wrote:

As a workaround we can suggest starting a Group Session. You can easily set it up by logging with one of your accounts on the third device, connecting it through Bluetooth to the sound system you'd like to use and starting a Spotify group session on speaker. 

please tell me the exact steps how I can control Android app with account "Alice" from a phone with account "Bob" in a "group session on speaker" as you suggested.

I tried this before I started this thread. As far as I see, "group session on speaker" doesn't work among standard Spotify Apps, in other words the Android Spotify App doesn't seem to be able to act as "speaker".

A "remote group session" would be possible but is much more effort to initiate from the phone connected to the stereo and it would play on all phones, so it's no viable option.

[Lyubka]

Hey @bolfh,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Let us explain a bit more about how you can make this work. 
 

The phone with the "Bob" account needs to be connected to the stereo system through Bluetooth for the Group session on speaker to become available. If you've done so and are still having issues setting it up, please get back to us and let us know the exact steps you're having trouble with.

If connecting through Bluetooth is not an option for you, we're afraid we can't offer another alternative to a Connect-enabled speaker for your particular setup. Feel free to vote and subscribe for this idea that might be helpful in your case.

Hope this clear things up.

Cheers!

[bolfh]

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@Lyubka wrote:

The phone with the "Bob" account needs to be connected to the stereo system through Bluetooth for the Group session on speaker to become available.

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Hi @Lyubka, my question was how to control account "Alice" from a phone with account "Bob". If Bob was connected to the stereo via Bluetooth, I didn't need Alice to be connected to the stereo.

[Lyubka]

Hey @bolfh,

Thanks for getting back to us and apologies for any confusion created on our end.

We were suggesting a workaround that would allow you to control the stereo with both the Alice and the Bob account, however, this only works if it can be linked via Bluetooth. 

Controlling the playback on another phone with different accounts is currently not possible.

Hope this clear things up,

Cheers!