Google and Spotify are Cooking Up a Couple of Sweet Audio Controls for Android

Controlling media on your Android phone has certainly turned into a much improved experience over the years. We now have a fancy media player in the notification shade, controls over what our volume buttons do, and easier ways to switch between devices. This week, Google teased a couple of new ideas it is working on with Spotify and another that they’ve tapped-in YouTube Music for as well, both of which we’ll be happy to see arrive.

The first is in collaboration with Spotify, where Google is working on a way to allow for easy switching between devices that work through Spotify Connect (like your Google Home devices).

This will work when you tap on the device switcher in the media player and a familiar pop-up will show. You do this now to switch between Bluetooth devices (and some Cast targets in YouTube Music), but Google and Spotify are teaming up to make these even more robust if a device works with Spotify Connect.

As you can see in the image below, their vision includes being able to see all of your available devices (like a smart speaker) and then not only being able to play to one, but possibly combining them. You want this today, right?

The other idea Google has uses a notification system that attempts to follow you throughout a day to help you easily continue on with music or a podcast from device to device. As an example, you might be listening to music in your car and then you arrive home. Once inside, a notification could ask if you want to continue listening on your home speakers or TV. If you connect a pair of headphones, it might trigger a notification to do the same.

Google is working with both Spotify and YouTube Music on this notification idea.

Google did not say when they might implement either of these new media control ideas, so don’t expect them in the next Pixel Feature Drop or anything. These could be Android 14 ideas that might not launch for a while. Or who knows, maybe we’ll see them in Android 15. Either way, just know that Google is working on them.

// Google