How to Turn on “Hey Spotify” Voice Control
Spotify has a brand new voice assistant in Android and iOS apps. Shout “Hey Spotify” on your device and you can control all aspects of the Spotify app hands-free – useful when you’re driving or cleaning your home. The first group of US users should have access to this feature now, and the company says it will roll out to other devices in the coming weeks.
While you can control Spotify by voice via Android Audio and Google Assistant on Android, and to a limited extent via Siri and CarPlay on Apple devices, “Hey Spotify” works directly with the Spotify app. This means you can use voice control without having to train your device’s digital assistant to recognize Spotify-specific commands.
Once “Hey Spotify” is available on your device, you will need to enable voice control in the app to use them:
How to turn on “Hey Spotify” voice control
- Open the Spotify app.
- Go to the “Search” tab.
- Tap the microphone icon next to the search bar.
- Select “Turn on ‘Hey Spotify'”.
- Give Spotify permission to record audio.
You can now use Spotify’s built-in voice control . Just say “Hey Spotify” and then execute the command. Ask it to play a specific artist or playlist you’ve created, pause or skip tracks, or download the latest episode of a podcast. You can also perform voice search without first switching the special voice mode.
If you want to turn off this feature, go to Settings> Voice Interactions and turn off Hey Spotify. This will prevent accidental activation and help maintain your privacy if you never use this feature after you enable it.
Like other voice-activated apps, Spotify will listen in the background for you to say “Hey Spotify”. Spotify reports that the app only listens to short bursts, which are immediately removed. If it recognizes the command, the app plays notifications and sounds to let you know that the app is recording you at that moment. The app needs recording to process your commands, but you can read Spotify’s voice privacy policy if you want to know more about how your voice audio is processed.