You can already control Spotify playback hands-free on your Android phone with Google Assistant (and via Siri on an iOS device of course), but that doesn't appear to be stopping Spotify from developing its own voice assistant.
According to a Tweet (below) from 'app reverse-engineer' Jane Manchun Wong, Spotify is working on an in-app voice activation feature which, when activated, would listen out for "Hey Spotify" – albeit only providing the app is already open on your phone.
Spotify is working on “Hey Spotify” voice activation pic.twitter.com/PqZI01WZreMarch 4, 2020
If this is the case when – or rather, if – it reaches the public, you have to wonder how useful it will actually be. Simply bringing Spotify back onto the screen, or playing a song if the app is already on your screen, would probably be quicker using your digits. And the Google Assistant's "OK Google" voice commands already let you open Spotify, play albums or playlists and adjust volume, after all.
Wong's findings don't allude to any specific "Hey Spotify" commands, although we'd expect there to be some differentiation as to what it can do over existing methods. Otherwise, there may be few reasons to change your wake work habit.
Of course, the feature could simply be a test in line with Spotify's Car Thing, an in-car voice-controlled (via "Hey Spotify") music device that the green giant has been implementing into the vehicles of a select number of US Premium subscribers in order to learn more about listening habits when people are behind the wheel.
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