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Super-Popular App Starts Acting Up on Android Auto, Bad Update to Blame

While Google is insisting on YouTube Music as the go-to music platform for Android Auto users, there’s no doubt Spotify remains one of the top choices.
Spotify on Android Auto 6 photos
Photo: Google
Android Auto interfaceAndroid Auto interfaceAndroid Auto interfaceAndroid Auto interfaceAndroid Auto interface
Google Play Music has long been the preferred service for Android Auto users, but now that Google decided to go all-in on YouTube Music, the Spotify fanbase has clearly improved.

And it’s no wonder why. Spotify is currently available in a total of 178 markets, providing access to an impressive collection of over 70 million tracks and more than 3.2 million podcasts.

And one of the most important things about Spotify is that it feels just like home on Android Auto, coming with the essential feature package right behind the wheel.

But like everything else on Android Auto, Spotify, to,o is prone to all kinds of problems that nobody can explain. And a glitch that was discovered recently is just the confirmation that sometimes, it’s better to hold back from updating your apps if you don’t care that much about the latest improvements.

Android Auto interface
Photo: Google

The problem

More specifically, many users who turned to Google’s forums to report the whole thing claim that Spotify no longer works with voice commands when running Android Auto on the screen.

In other words, Spotify is indeed running properly when playing the music, but when it comes to switching to a specific track requested with a voice command, the app no longer responds correctly.

Most people who are struggling with this unexpected behavior claim that after repeating the command, Spotify ends up resuming the song that was already playing, therefore ignoring the request completely.

Others explain Spotify is acting up in a different way in their cars. This time, the application does search for the requested song but doesn’t play it automatically, so users have to just go to the search results manually and select the track to listen to.

In both cases, however, the whole thing was introduced after a recent update, though right now, it’s not exactly clear who’s to blame for this problem.

The most recent stable version of Android Auto is 7.0, and it went live on the Google Play Store in early November. In the case of Spotify, the latest update was released on the store on October 28, so the two new versions ended up being pushed to Android devices nearly at the same time.

Android Auto interface
Photo: Google

The workarounds

In theory, if you’re certain a recent version of Android Auto or Spotify is the one to blame for the aforementioned bug, the easiest workaround is to just go back to an earlier release.

To do this, you need to manually remove the apps from your mobile device and then download the APK installers for the version you want to downgrade to. You can find the Spotify and Android Auto APK files on these pages right here – just make sure you select the correct version when downloading them.

On the other hand, others have tried the generic workarounds, but these made little to no difference in nearly all cases. Users claim that clearing the cache, deleting the data, and even reinstalling Spotify don’t restore the voice commands on Android Auto.

So right now, it’s pretty clear that a full patch from Google or Spotify is absolutely needed to resolve the error on Android Auto.

The good news is the Mountain View-based search giant has already confirmed that it’s looking into all these reports, though for the time being, there’s no ETA for a fix. In other words, the company is trying to figure out what’s actually happening and why Spotify is no longer playing nice with voice commands, and only then start the work on the full fix.

In the meantime, Spotify has remained completely tight-lipped on the struggle with voice commands, so if the error is happening on its side, it could take even longer until it’s eventually resolved.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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