Spotify is beta-testing Siri support for iOS 13 The feature we’ve all been waiting for is in testing now, but don’t expect Apple Watch or HomePod support. On the Mac, invoking Siri and asking for Spotify, regardless of whether it's installed or not, gets a reply saying, 'That's beyond my capabilities at the moment.' Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Music service Spotify has added a voice search feature to its iOS app that allows users to find song tracks, albums, and playlists. The new test feature takes Siri. Siri and Spotify. Use voice commands to control what plays with Siri. You can ask Siri to: Play songs, artists, albums, playlists, podcasts; Like music to save it to.

Spotify has made it clear that it doesn’t think Apple plays fair as a music streaming rivalry and platform holder. But give Spotify credit—the company is doing more than just filing legal complaints against Apple for unfair business practices, it’s striving to make its service more appealing than Apple Music. In February, Spotify added Spotify HiFi so you can listen to music with “CD-quality” sound, something Apple music doesn’t have. There have also been updates to the apps and web interface to make the service easier to use. And now, the Spotify iOS app supports “Voice Interactions” that provide hands-free control of the app.

The Voice Interactions feature is rolling out to users gradually. To see if you have it, check the settings (the gear icon) within the Spotify app, and look for Voice Interactions. Tap it, and in the next screen, you’ll see a switch to turn on “Hey Spotify.” You’ll also be prompted to give the app permission to use your iPhone’s microphone. You have two voice options: Option 1 is a male voice; Option 2 is a female voice.

IDG/Spotify

Once that’s all set, you can then use Hey Spotify commands to run the app. For example, I said, “Hey Spotify, play baby shark,” and the app did a search and showed the results. Then it automatically played a song—one that I did not want. While a song played, the app was able to recognize me saying “Hey Spotify play Lady Gaga” to pull up search results and play a Lady Gaga song. I was also able to do other functions, such as play one of my playlists, skip a song, stop playing, and play a previous song. And I ran into a screen that said I couldn’t do anything while an ad was playing.

How To Use Siri With Spotify

I’m going to need some practice using this feature, though. I’m too used to saying “Hey Siri,” and I said that almost every time I was in the Spotify app. Plus, there’s the odd situation of saying “Hey Siri” to launch the Spotify app on your iPhone, and then you need to make the mental gear switch to “Hey Spotify” while in the app.

You can also play songs, artists, albums, playlists, and more on Spotify using Siri voice commands. Simply say, “Hey Siri, play [item] on Spotify.” Siri also controls system-level playback functions like pausing, next and previous track, volume, and so on.

Apple has finally offered the ability to set Spotify as your default music player for Siri commands. This was previously only available on HomePods, and was a feature we asked for back in 2019.

The new behavior appears in the beta of iOS 14.5. The first time you ask Siri to play something, it lists all the streaming services you have installed on your device and ask you which of them you want to use. Once you have done so, Siri then defaults to that service for subsequent requests …

The feature was first spotted by Reddit users (via MacRumors), and includes podcast apps, too. Users without the Apple Music app installed report that it simply defaults to the music player they use.

“I just told Siri to play a song and it started on Spotify without any further questions. I have Apple Music uninstalled.”

“I don’t have the music app installed and it just asked for permission to access YouTube Music. After that, every request has been sent straight to YTM.”

“I asked Siri to play an artist without specifying Spotify and it told me it will need access to my Spotify account and asked if I allowed access. I replied yes and the song played. Now every command controls Spotify even if not mentioned. Great move.”

“It even works when I ask it to play my liked songs and it just goes straight to Spotify to play that playlist, pretty cool.”

Users do, however, note that it seems buggy at present.

“This actually seems fairly buggy. I tried this and it didn’t give me a pop up. Just goes straight to Apple Music.”

Siri Spotify Homepod

“Yeah, it is a bit inconsistent, as with all things Siri. Just now i asked it to ‘Play blue hotel’, after which it offered me to choose, then I dismissed it and asked it again and it played straight on Apple Music, and then the third time I asked it, it asked me for access to my Pocket Casts data, which is a podcast app and obviously doesn’t have music at all.”

Apple has made a number of moves of late designed to keep antitrust actions at bay. iOS 14 last year allowed users to change their default web browser and email app as part of five changes made in response to antitrust concerns. The changes were made after it was suggested that the company was abusing its dominant position to put competitive apps at a disadvantage.

Apple has so far kept this one quiet. It’s worth noting that there is no UI for this in Settings as yet, so it’s possible that the company didn’t intend to have this feature release in iOS 14.5. Either way, it will make a lot of people happy once it is fully available.

Siri Spotify Integration

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