- Spotify could be developing a smart glasses version of its app
- It interface could include a 'Now Playing' screen as well as synced lyrics
- As it's early days, you'll still need to have your smartphone nearby
Out of all the best music streaming services, Spotify has launched pretty much every feature you can imagine, but now it could be taking its streaming experience even further — into the world of smart glasses.
You read that right. A smart glasses version of the audio streaming platform could be on the horizon, which is perfect timing as we know Google and Samsung are currently working on their own XR wearables.
There’s also evidence to support this. In a teardown conducted by Android Authority, new lines of code were spotted in the latest beta of the Spotify app for Android, heavily suggesting that Spotify has started working on developing the foundation for its own smart glasses app. As per the teardown, it appears that Spotify for smart glasses will have two of its most-used features from the standard mobile app.
Firstly, this includes the ‘Now Playing’ screen that displays the current song and its details, a tool that’s crucial to the Spotify experience. Lyrics are also integral to how music listeners engage with Spotify, and the teardown suggests that this will also make its way to the Spotify smart glasses interface — which is by far the more exciting of the two. It’s one way to take your solo karaoke sessions to the next level.
As it stands, it looks as though Spotify is starting small with its venture into smart glasses. Right now there’s no indication that you’ll be able to manage Your Library, create playlists, or browse for music, podcasts, and audiobooks using the headset itself. As for tap functions for volume control, and skipping and pausing songs, this isn’t set in stone so it’s best to take it with a pinch of salt — which brings me to the main caveat.
If Spotify does go ahead with its smart glasses launch, it’s likely that you’ll still need to have your smartphone on hand to use Spotify. On Google’s Android XR developer page, the company explains this further in the following statement:
“The AI glasses experience is built on the existing Android Activity framework API and includes additional concepts to support the unique aspects of AI glasses. Unlike XR headsets that run a full APK on the device, AI glasses use a dedicated activity that runs within your phone's existing app. This activity is projected from the host device to the AI glasses.”
We don’t know how long it will be before you’ll be able to use Spotify in its full capacity on smart glasses, but with that in mind, it makes sense that the audio streaming giant is starting small. By focusing on two of its most-used features first, it gives the company a chance to gauge consumer takeaways following the launch, and build up accordingly.
We all know that Spotify prides itself on new product features (it’s just rolled out a new Taste Profile tool and has plenty more in the pipeline), so if I were to put money on it, I’d guess that Spotify would want to mirror the very best parts of its mobile experience in its smart glasses app sooner rather than later, in order to be ready to fully embrace a new era of wearable tech.
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