How to control other media on Car Thing

[zksrwu]

Plan

Premium

Country

US

Device

iPhone 12

Operating System

iOS 15.2.1

My Question or Issue

Per the latest press release (https://newsroom.spotify.com/2022-04-07/spotifys-car-thing-device-debuts-new-features/), we should be able to control other media using an iPhone. How do I do this?

I've tried streaming from Amazon Music/YouTube Music and tried playing a downloaded podcasts in Apple Podcasts and nothing shows up on Car Thing's screen. Help would be much appreciated!

[MattSuda]

Hey @zksrwu 

This new feature is still rolling out to Car Thing users so you may not be seeing it just yet. You should hopefully be seeing it soon.

When I turned on my Car Thing yesterday there was a popup screen first that I had to dismiss that let me know that playback in other apps was now possible.

When you are playing media in other apps it should look like this on Car Thing in the image included below. It shows the title and then pause/play and skip buttons. At the top left there is also a button to go back to Spotify on Car Thing.

It just gives you basic controls. I found that for certain apps the info that shows up is not correct like most of the time I saw blank album artwork and the title was basic. Hopefully they can improve this in future updates. But I think the info shown is usually similar to what is show on the iOS now playing area of Control Center or on the lockscreen. So it will depend on the app and the info they show in the iOS now playing area.

[MattSuda]

I also want to note that this feature is currently iOS only. Android support for this will be coming at a later time. In case any Android users see this thread

[zksrwu]

Hm, it has been almost a week (sorry for the late reply) and I haven't seen the popup screen (I did see one last week about the new phone call feature). Have you been able to get this to work? If so, which apps? Thank you!!

[Ahandro]

The main reason I still used the Carthing was because it forced my phone to play Spotify rather than opening the Apple Music app when my phone connects to the car’s bluetooth.
Adding an option in the Carthing’s settings to simply disable external media control would fix this issue. Please consider it

[MattSuda]

@zksrwu 

Yes I've been able to get it to work. I tried a few third party podcast apps and radio apps and they showed up.

I'm thinking it's a feature that is still rolling out to Car Thing users and you should hopefully see it once the rollout is finished.

[Seoulrebel]

I received my Car Thing today. It is now September 26th and no official employees of Spotify have provided a solution or replied. Has the update been rolled or still waiting? I am not able to control other media. 

[volodoscope]

Hi, yes, you need to restart the Car Thing.