These larger touchscreen technologies offer much more robust integration with a broader range of audio streaming services, app types (like parking or messaging apps) and navigation. For many older cars, this can be a dealbreaker.Īnd if your car already supports a standard like Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, the Car Thing will be redundant. If your car doesn't support either of these already, the Car Thing won't get you any closer to bringing your tunes on the road. It's just a remote control and so requires that your phone connect directly to your car's stereo, either via Bluetooth or an auxiliary analog input. The Spotify Car Thing is not a way to add audio streaming connectivity to your car. An ambient light sensor also lowers the brightness at night, which I appreciated. It's not super accurate to touch inputs, but the display is bright and is easily visible even in broad daylight with the top down in my Mazda Miata. Once installed and powered up, the Car Thing connects to your phone via Bluetooth and communicates with the Spotify app wirelessly, displaying albums, artist and playlist information on its 4-inch color touchscreen. The combination of a 4-inch screen, voice command and physical controls is easy to use while driving. The Car Thing also includes a few adhesive clips to help you manage your cables. The adapter's second USB port is designed to keep your phone charged while using the Car Thing, but you'll have to supply your own cable for that. The Car Thing is powered by USB and includes a 12-volt to dual USB Type-A power adapter and a braided USB Type-A-to-C cable. The puck has a slight angle to it, allowing it to be rotated to point the Car Thing at the driver or account for a steeply sloped dashboard. It's designed for in-car use and mounts on a magnetic puck that's installed with adhesive on your vehicle's dashboard, on a vent with included clips or on a bracket that slips into the unused CD slot on your car's stereo. Simply put, the Spotify Car Thing is a Bluetooth remote control for the Spotify app running on your phone.

Spotify car thing order