Voice control Android auto doesn't work

[RichardH85]

Hi, 

Really annoying. Voice control doesn't work in android auto. I say something like 'play David Bowie' which worked fine on Google play music and nothing happens. The dots come up to say it's listening and then they go away without playing the song. 

Am I missing anything? Is there some setting I haven't changed or is this a known annoying issue. 

If it can't be fixed I'll have to leave Spotify. 

Thanks for any help! 

[RichardH85]

BUMPBUMPBUMPBUMP

[RichardH85]

Bump bump bump bump

[RichardH85]

Despite the lack of support from Spotify when I asked them for help (even directly on twitter) I figured out what was wrong and how to get it to work. 

Android auto uses what seems like Google now but is actually Google assistant with a couple extra features. So, whereas on a pixel/nexus phone you can just say what you want and it'll go away and do it no matter which music app, on android auto you need to be specific.

As an example - on a pixel you'd say: 'play Sam Smith' and it'd do it. In android auto you'd have to say - 'play Sam Smith on Spotify' then it works.

Then there's a further issue with android auto (which only Google can fix) where you've got your music playing now. If you want to change what you want to hear entirely you'll likely come up stuck. The apps seem to jam and nothing will play. To fix that you have to go into the app on your phone, clear the cache and the force it stop. This set it back to normal. All you data is untouched. It just clears the jam. 

I think this issue comes from Google coding android auto with Google play music in mind and all other music apps came as a second thought. 

Remember - be specific. If you want a song it's 'play ☓ song by ☓ artist on Spotify' 

Hope this helps. I was pulling my hair out looking for the answer. 

[Zonk76]

@RichardH85: No, this doesn't help. It's not about exact command. Voice control in car worked fine for months. Since about 2-3 weeks it suddenly stopped. Problem as described before: Google Assistant in car/Android Auto listens to my command (e.g. "play song xy from xy), but then nothing happens. No confirmation, no error message.

Deleting cache, force close and restart Spotify (and my phone) doesn't help.

Car: VW Golf with MIB2

Phone: Samsung S7, Android 7.0