Media player / Spotify compatibility?

Having Garmin zumo XT problems? there is loads of help and advice in this forum
Norrie83
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Joined: 21 Aug 2020 20:16
Great Britain

Media player / Spotify compatibility?

Post by Norrie83 »

I can’t seem to get a definitive answer on this one.

Has the Zumo XT got Spotify installed like a previous model ?

If not is there anyway to play it from my phone and control stop, next track etc etc from the Zumo XT ?

When out I listen to Spotify through my headset so would be a handy feature to have

Can anyone clarify?

Thanks in advance 😃
Vespamarc
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Belgium

Re: Media player / Spotify compatibility?

Post by Vespamarc »

It has not.
You have control by phone. Play, stop, forward, shuffle... all on screen.
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jfheath
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Re: Media player / Spotify compatibility?

Post by jfheath »

The Zumo 595 which has a Spotify App and connects to Spotify via the Garmin Smartphone Link App. This gives the Zumo 595 the ability to Browse through the music categories and to select Albums, artists , playlists etc from Spotify and control it through a media player type app. You have to load the Spotify App on the phone first. It sounds brilliant in theory, but I find it very clicky in the earphones - to the extent that I decided I didn't want that, and resorted to using my mp3 files on the Zumo if I wanted music.

The Zumo XT does not have a separate App for Spotify. The Music App on the XT will pick up the smartphone as a music source and the controls to play, pause, skip forward and back will all control whatever the Smartphone is playing. So if the smartphone is set up to play a playlist on Spotify, the XT can control that playlist. If you want to change to a different album, playlist or artist, then you have to do that on the smartphone itself.
The same applies to radio programs and any other music being played on the smartphone. I have not yet found a way that it is able to get hold of raw mpr3 files on the smartphone - without them being played by a media player on the phone - although that may be possible.

It seems that basically, the browse feature is disabled when getting sound from the smartphone - you can just skip fwd and back, play and pause. Brose is available when the MP£ folder on the Zumo XT is selected.
Have owned Zumo 550, 660 == Now have Zumo XT2, XT, 595, 590, Headache
Use Basecamp (mainly), MyRouteApp (sometimes), Competent with Tread for XT2, Can use Explore for XT - but it offers nothing that I want !

Links: Zumo 590/5 & BC . . . Zumo XT & BC
Hobbington
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Great Britain

Re: Media player / Spotify compatibility?

Post by Hobbington »

Thank you jfjeath for the info - I've been wondering why I couldn't browse music like I used to on the 595.
This is a massive backward step for Garmin, along with the ludicrous choice to go with an outdated usb format.
Shame, because the XT is otherwise a much better device.