Photo Credit: Amazon
Amazon just updated Amazon Music with ‘car mode,’ a new larger display for vehicle travel.
The new interface features larger buttons to control back and next song and play and pause. It also features a list of suggested playlists and albums, and offers easy access to Alexa. Amazon Music car mode is divided into two sections. The upper part features playback controls. The bottom half features a collection of music you can tap to play.
When open, the app also responds to Alexa voice commands for a totally hands-free experience. The new mode can be activated when it detects it is connected to a car’s Bluetooth signal. Car mode should make Amazon Music slightly easier to use while in the vehicle. That’s an area where Amazon has lagged behind, compared to competitors like Apple and YouTube Music.
How to Enable Car Mode
For any vehicle with a Bluetooth connection, Amazon Music automatically detects and displays car mode. If your vehicle is older or you don’t use the Bluetooth, you can enable the new setting with these steps.
- Tap on the Amazon Music icon to open it.
- Navigate to the ‘Settings‘ page.
- Scroll down and find ‘Car Mode‘ and check it.
- Tap ‘Exit Car Mode‘ to leave the interface.
You should now have Amazon Music in car mode with much bigger playback controls. I can see this being useful for older people who have trouble with some of the smaller controls on music apps.
Amazon Music isn’t quite as popular as Spotify or Apple Music, but it is growing. It has over 55 million subscribers as of numbers from January 2020. The discount for Prime members also gives Amazon Music Unlimited a low barrier of entry for those already in the Amazon ecosystem.
Amazon Music’s car mode is now available on both iOS and Android devices.
You’ll need an iOS device that’s on at least version 10.7.0, or an Android device that’s on version 17.74. You can download the Amazon Music app from the Google Play Store and the App Store.
Distracted driving is the leading cause of accidents and road deaths in the United States, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The NHTSA says distracted driving was responsible for 3,142 deaths in 2019. That number dropped in 2020, thanks to the pandemic lowering the demand for commuting. Amazon is a bit late to the party here with car mode since it was one of the last major services without it.