Request: Spotify Direct Integration

Something that Ive also been dying for is integration with Plex. I know someone was working on an API or webhook for it a while back, but I dont think anything ever came from it.
Im also not sure if there ever will be integration with Netflix/Prime/Hulu, but honestly if you could, you would easily be competing with the likes of Control4. I have a feeling the Netflix/Prime/Hulu integration wont be possible though.

My thought on using it would be to have a “main” tile with cover art, play pause, skip. Then a separate dashboard with more detailed functionality.

1 Like

One main feature of this, for me, would have to be the ability to change playback devices through Spotify Connect… I use Chromecast Audio as my multi room audio solution.

3 Likes

I would be very interested in this. I am just switching back to Spotify, and having a ‘widget’ that works with this may be the final thing that would allow me to use Sharptools as my main dashboard on my tablet.

5 Likes

My big interest is a Now Playing tile with cover art. Playback controls would be nice but not required. Anything more elaborate (playlist access, etc.) is not interesting to me. I can do that in the app.

I have tried https://github.com/mitchpond/Spotify-HE-Connect but haven’t gotten it to work yet in the ST Classic app.

Edit: my primary use case for sharptools is a informational dashboard rather than a place where I take action.

3 Likes

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Just an update that we’ve submitted an application to the Spotify team. We’ll update this thread as we hear back from them. :smiley:

6 Likes

It sounds like you’re already looking into this one Josh, but I’d like to also express interest in this idea. Personally, I’d most value a single large tile with artwork, play/pause button, next track button and shortcut to open the full Spotify app.

3 Likes

I like the idea of the shortcut to open the full app.

1 Like

Thanks for the specific use cases!

In the meantime, you can open the Spotify app from a Hyperlink tile or Media tile (with Hyperlink action) today:

For Fully Kiosk Browser on Android, the hyperlink URL would be:

intent:#Intent;launchFlags=0x10000000;component=com.spotify.music/.MainActivity;end

And in iOS it would be:

spotify://app/browse
1 Like

Hey Josh, any movement here by chance? I’ve got several Chromecast Audios around my house and I use Spotify exclusively to play music on them. Direct Spotify integration in SharpTools would be awesome.

The only thing I’m not sure of is whether Spotify Connect integration would actually help my situation. My understanding is that Chromecasts don’t actually work as Spotify Connect devices.

Either way, just seeing if there has been any movement here. Thanks for all you and your team do!

We haven’t heard back from the Spotify team yet. As you noted, I’m not sure Spotify Connect would help in your situation either as I believe Chromecast devices are only discovered via another device on the network (eg. your phone) whereas we would be interacting through their Web API.

What are you hoping to do with Chromecast streaming? There are some workarounds that can be done to automate casting from Android devices with Tasker.

I’m really just looking for playback control. As someone earlier in this thread notes, having album artwork, playlist name, etc would be cool but even just play/pause at this point would rock.

I know there’s a SmartThings plugin to set up a node.js server and make Chromecast devices appear as speakers within SmartThings, so I may just end up going that route.

Automating casting from my Kindle Fire would be interesting. I typically start playing music from my iPhone but I’m open to suggestions. I’ll be honest, the new $99 Sonos/IKEA speakers that were just announced are looking more and more appealing…especially given CCA’s limitations.

1 Like

Nudge these Spotify people!!! :slight_smile:

2 Likes

4 posts were split to a new topic: App Intent Hyperlinks and Fully Kiosk Browser

2 posts were split to a new topic: How can I incorporate Apple Music with SharpTools?

Yeah…thats the way you have to go (I think every business); maybe a good tool to do that is have a space in the sharp tool web where current and future users could vote for the most popular ideas they want to become in reality… (or maybe a mailing poll)…

2 Likes

Hey everyone! We’ve added a new ‘Feature Requests’ category on the community and enabled voting on it. I’ve moved this topic there, so please be sure to scroll up to the first post and cast your vote to show your interest.

2 Likes

Spotify can be integrated into SmartThings via the “EchoSpeaks” SmartApp. This allows your Echo devices to interact with your linked Spotify account. Take a look at the section I created on my dashboard that displays album art and gives me control over what is playing, including a search feature that allows me to search for a specific song.

The future of EchoSpeaks is unknown though, as Samsung are going to be terminating it due to it using an outdated Groovy implementation. However, the creator of EchoSpeaks is potentially working on an updated version. I know this isn’t a implementing Spotify directly, but it works, and it works really well! Just crossing my fingers that EchoSpeaks gets updated!

EchoSpeaks: https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-echo-speaks-v3-actions/173073

3 Likes

I know it’s been 2 years since your reply, but can you explain how you achieved the music search tab? I am semi new to echo speaks but I understand you can sent a spotify search to echo devices with a text string, but I am unsure how to send a custom string from a text box within Sharptools.

One approach is to use SharpTools Variables paired with Rules.

  • Create a Text Variable that you’ll use as your search input (and add it to your dashboard)
  • Create a Rule with a Trigger for anytime your Text Variable changes (and is not blank)
    • Have the rule run the relevant search command on your Echo Speaks device using the content of the Text Variable as your search string
    • Have the rule reset the Text Variable back to blank

With this setup, you would have a blank ‘search’ tile on your dashboard (the Text Variable) which you could tap and enter a search string. When the change is saved, it will kick off your rule which will run the search/play command and then will reset the variable so your search tile gets reset.

2 Likes