Spotify is killing off one of its most useful features

Spotify says it is working on new ways to provide the best in-car listening experience to its users.

What you need to know

• Spotify is discontinuing its Car View feature.
• The feature was introduced in early 2019 to provide a safer in-car listening experience.
• While Spotify hasn't announced a replacement for the Car View feature yet, it says that there are "new innovations coming down the track."

Spotify introduced a new feature called Car View in early 2019 to enable users to safely control their music while driving. Sadly, the music streaming giant has decided to retire the feature to "make way for new innovations" (via Android Police).

Confirming the change on the company's Community forum, a Spotify moderator wrote:

We can confirm that we're retiring the car view feature. This however doesn't mean we don't want to improve on how our users listen to Spotify while driving. On the contrary, we're actively exploring a variety of new ways to deliver the best in-car listening experience.

Along with Car View, Spotify is also retiring its in-car Now Play View for Android. While the company says it is exploring new ways to deliver the best in-car listening experience to users, there's no word yet on when the new features will begin rolling out.

If you have been regularly using the Car View feature, the best alternative right now is to listen hands-free using Google Assistant. The hands-free feature works with Google Maps too, which means you can easily navigate while listening to your favorite tracks on Spotify. To start using the feature, link your accounts and say, "Hey Google, play Spotify."

The change comes just weeks after Spotify opened up a waitlist for its free and premium subscribers to purchase the Car Thing. Spotify's first hardware device connects to your phone via Bluetooth to enable you to "play your favorite audio faster." It is compatible with both the best Android phones and iPhones. While you can sign up for the waitlist even with a free account, you won't be able to use the Car Thing without a premium Spotify account.