Spotify does not automatically start connecting to bluetooth

[ejparchment]

I recently got a new android phone. My previous phone was on lollipop, my new phone is on oreo. Whenever I would jump into the car with my old phone and turn bluetooth on my radio it would connect very quickly and start playing a song / song be paused ready to play. 

With my new phone, not only is the bluetooth connection slow (could be a phone issue... would would be weird when comparing to a 5 year old phone), but the worst is when it does connect my music doesn't automatically start playing. I have to open the app on my phone and start it, this is a terrible user experience when in a car of having to dig my phone out of my pocket, open the app and hit play. Is there any toggle or something that I'm missing that allows music to just start playing as soon as I'm connect to bluetooth or at least just need to press play on my bluetooth device.