Users trying to listen to music with voice commands on Android Auto say Spotify no longer launches. Instead, you’ll be prompted to manually open the app in Android Auto.
Spotify is currently the top music app on mobile devices and the app comes with a dedicated interface for Android Auto users. Music will continue to stream from your mobile device and voice commands will be provided by the Google Assistant.
Since late February, it’s no longer possible to start playing music on Spotify using the Google Assistant. Every time a voice command is sent to his Android Auto, the user is notified “Something went wrong” and requested “Please open Spotify to continue”.
The error is strange, to say the least. Google Assistant has to launch his Spotify on its own, and outside of Android Auto, it can do this correctly. However, even if Spotify is already running on his Android Auto, you won’t be able to play songs with Google Assistant.
Users who encounter the glitch claim to have tried common workarounds. Clearing cache and storage from Android Auto, Google app and Spotify doesn’t seem to help. The same goes for uninstalling and reinstalling Spotify, as the music app doesn’t seem to be the culprit in this case.
The consensus is that Google Assistant is hitting an Android Auto compatibility bug. This issue is reminiscent of a similar issue encountered by her Google Assistant in the car when the user tried to make a call. Google Assistant was able to process the command correctly, but instead of initiating the call it returned to the focused app and ignored the request.
If Google Assistant is indeed the source of the bug, downgrading to an earlier version may help. The user started reporting problems in late February and should revert to the version of his Google app that shipped in the first week of the same month.
The current release at the time of writing is 14.7.14, but the version you should downgrade to is 14.4.12. It was published on February 2nd when the Android Auto bug didn’t exist.
As a temporary solution, users who want to listen to music on Spotify will have to resort to manual input. This is not necessarily the best option for those who need to keep their eyes on the road all the time, but the driver should set the regeneration before starting to drive.
Google is not yet aware of this issue, so a fix is unlikely at this time.
