Sensus Connect - Spotify

[riggsy]

Originally Posted by Julianpms

I too would love to have a fully integrated Spotify app on my current V60 and on the V40 I have on order. To be fair to Volvo, however, when I took delivery of my V60 in 2014, Sensus did include the Rdio app, which was similar to Spotify. You could import Spotify playlists into it easily too, with a free utility. Unfortunately for us in Europe, Rdio got taken over by Pandora and the Volvo service fell by the wayside following the takeover, a decision taken by Pandora, not Volvo.

Yes I agree, not exactly Volvo's fault but for owners to be left with no music streaming service in the UK is pretty poor by today's standards. I would hope they would work on a replacement integration, anything will do, it really isn't difficult to do. My preference and the most sensible option would probably be spotify but anything, just 1 decent app will do the trick, e.g. Spotify, Apple, Google. I've already contacted Volvo UK, would appreciate it if other's could do the same if they are also miffed about not having a streaming app. Shame about Rdio, I'd never used it but it was at least an option, currently we don't have one!

[wimorrison]

Don't hold out any hope of getting anything from Volvo UK 'customer care' as all they do is redirect people to the dealer network. Their name is one huge oxymoron as they don't care about customers once you have purchased the car.

[red baron]

I'm honestly shocked to see that Volvo are not supporting widely used applications such as spotify in cars. So much for driver safety and focus on driving when you've to lift you phone to search instead of using the car's, no doubt expensive on board computer system.

If it's an android system surely someone can root / download spotify onto it? Drastic having to 'hack' a new car though

[riggsy]

Originally Posted by red baron

I'm honestly shocked to see that Volvo are not supporting widely used applications such as spotify in cars. So much for driver safety and focus on driving when you've to lift you phone to search instead of using the car's, no doubt expensive on board computer system.

If it's an android system surely someone can root / download spotify onto it? Drastic having to 'hack' a new car though

That was my approach with customer support, the safety aspect of having to look at phone to choose playlists etc on Spotify. USA users have the use of Pandora, not sure about other regions but as usual us UK users get the poor deal.

[wimorrison]

Originally Posted by red baron

I'm honestly shocked to see that Volvo are not supporting widely used applications such as spotify in cars. So much for driver safety and focus on driving when you've to lift you phone to search instead of using the car's, no doubt expensive on board computer system.

If it's an android system surely someone can root / download spotify onto it? Drastic having to 'hack' a new car though

Why did you assume it is Android based? I am not aware that anyone has been bothered to find out if this is the case. There are lots of other potential operation systems that would permit the operations required.

Originally Posted by riggsy

That was my approach with customer support, the safety aspect of having to look at phone to choose playlists etc on Spotify. USA users have the use of Pandora, not sure about other regions but as usual us UK users get the poor deal.

You don't have to look at your phone to do anything, it is your choice that you wish to operate like this, which is also illegal. You could download the music to your phone, a USB stick or onto the car hard drive and have control from the steering wheel.

[Considered1]

I was tempted to await Apple Carplay in the next XC60 and when I realised the new model was possibly a couple of years away I took the plunge for a great car.
Expecting to be let down by the tech I can safely say I have not used the Sensus apps for anything Music related.

I have been pleasantly surprised how easy it is to shout "hey Siri" (you can all do something similar now) "play whateverthe hell you want"

My only irritation has been the volume on my iPhone 5c would always start at 50% and wacking the car up to full just didnt do it. Now thankfully my apple watch opens music and I can turn the scroll wheel on my watch to max in a brief nano second without taking my eyes off the road.

I stream apple music from my phone to the car so should work just as easy with spotify on your phone.

frankly not sure what all the fuss is about.

[riggsy]

Originally Posted by wimorrison

Why did you assume it is Android based? I am not aware that anyone has been bothered to find out if this is the case. There are lots of other potential operation systems that would permit the operations required.



You don't have to look at your phone to do anything, it is your choice that you wish to operate like this, which is also illegal. You could download the music to your phone, a USB stick or onto the car hard drive and have control from the steering wheel.

I think a couple of people are missing the point here.
a) I do not want to download music to the hard drive, that would require purchasing the music and then transfer to the sensus connect, why should i do that when I already pay for Spotify? Things have moved on from mp3 files.
b) Yes I would have to look at my phone, how else would I be able to change from one playlist to another? Not safe in my opinion and totally unecessary if the Sensus Connect can be used to provide an integrated experience.
c) my current ford vehicle has applink, this provides the required options such as "Choose playlist", "Choose Artist", "Browse" etc via the voice recognition and controls the phone's spotify app via a simple programming interface.
d) I fully understand I can do basic bluetooth streaming but my point is, volvo already provide the correct way of doing things with the current system but just haven't bothered with Spotify/Apple/Google for UK users, they should provide at least one suitable alternative for UK users, after all we at least used to have Rdio as an integrated streaming app.

Whichever way you look at it, the sensus connect no longer provides a music streaming app, they should pull their finger out and provide at least one of the major streaming services for the UK.

[NigelDay]

Originally Posted by riggsy

Whichever way you look at it, the sensus connect no longer provides a music streaming app, they should pull their finger out and provide at least one of the major streaming services for the UK.

It would require 'pressure' from Volvo UK to Sweden. Can't ever see this happening.