Spotify’s long-awaited car device, a voice-activated music player popularly known as the Car Thing, has just arrived in a handful of in-app versions released by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser, who found the images in Spotify’s app code. These versions closely resemble photographs of the actual transaction filed as part of the filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which The edge report back in January.
Thanks to these versions, we’re looking at the advanced Spotify Car Thing design, which features a large button on the right, a color screen, and four buttons on the top. Former official companies have been producing a much smaller screen since the product’s formal release in 2019.
Yet, Spotify’s design has since moved much closer to a sleek display style, which makes sense, as it now looks more like a miniature infotainment screen you’d find in a modern vehicle. These new versions feature the screen and a possible interface design, in addition to different mounting designs to attach the device to different parts of the dashboard.
There is nothing to say when or even Spotify plans to launch the product formally. The company’s February rally, outlining its new Hi-Fi streaming level, came and went without any new information about the Car Thing, and the device was announced in 2019 as just a test product to help Spotify better understand users’ listening habits along the way.
So there is no formal product name, potential release date or any other information indicating whether it will ever come from Spotify’s testing lab and in a consumer’s car. But the updated design and the FCC submission – and now the in-app is being rendered – suggest the product may have a future. We just do not know what it looks like at the moment.