‘Hey Spotify’ In-App Voice Assistant Is Now Rolling Out for iPhone Users

BY Mahit Huilgol

Published 7 Apr 2021

Virtual Assistants like Siri and Google Assistant have evolved a lot in the recent past. Now Spotify has entered the virtual assistant space with its new voice assistant. You can now say “Hey Spotify” on your iPhone to play a song, album, or playlist.

Apparently Spotify has been testing the new feature for a while now. Spotify virtual assistant will be available for both iPhone and Android. The folks at 9to5Mac have accessed the feature on iPhone.

Spotify’s virtual assistant is designed explicitly for the music streaming app. In other words, you can only use “Hey Spotify” to access features within the app. Another drawback is that the Spotify app should be open to using the virtual assistant. Currently, the feature is being rolled out for limited iPhone users and is not available for everyone.

Previously, Spotify used to offer a voice commands feature for premium users. The new “Hey Spotify” feature seems like an enhanced version of the same. Unlike Voice commands, you don’t need to tap on the icon to activate voice search.

How to activate the “Hey Spotify” feature on your iPhone

  • Activate the “Hey Spotify” feature by heading over to the Settings icon on the Spotify homepage
  • Tap on Voice interactions
  • Tap on the “Hey Spotify” toggle to activate the feature.

Once activated, you can search and play songs, albums, and playlists by saying the wake word. Recently, Spotify announced that it is working on a bunch of new features. HiFi subscription tier, redesign homepage to include a podcast, and an app redesign across iOS, Mac, and web apps are in the pipeline. Last week we also got a glimpse of Spotify’s “Car Thing.”

[via 9to5Mac]