Features

Play, pause, skip, seek, shuffle, and repeat across your entire Spotify library — playlists, albums, artists, and Liked Songs.

Album art takes center stage, with animated background gradients pulled from the cover of whatever is playing.

Follow along with lyrics that highlight in time with the music.

Personalized mixes, fresh discoveries, and DJ sessions are one tap away in the Radio tab.

See what is up next, add tracks to the queue with a swipe, and heart songs right from the player.

Move playback between your phone, computer, TV, or speakers without leaving the driver's seat.

Browse your shows, pick up where you left off, and adjust playback speed to your liking.

Not on Spotify? Nocturne displays and controls whatever is playing on your phone.

The volume knob controls your phone, and phone volume changes show up on screen instantly.

Browse with the rotary dial and map the four hardware buttons to your favorite playlists — one press to play, saved per phone.

Swipe to change songs, swipe up for lyrics, and swipe a track to queue it — every gesture is a setting you control.

The ambient light sensor smoothly adapts the display day and night, with Night Mode in the classic interface.

A clean clock lock screen, automatic display sleep when idle, and instant wake on input or an incoming call.

A hands-on tutorial teaches every dial, button, and gesture the first time you boot up.

Wake-word detection runs entirely on the device, just say "Hey Nocturne" and ask.

Play music, search, queue tracks, set volume, save songs, and more — hands on the wheel the whole time.

Spoken responses confirm what happened, so you never have to glance over.

Mute the microphone with one tap, and get a heads-up when air vent noise would interfere with voice input.

Incoming calls appear with answer and decline controls, right on the Car Thing.

Messages and app notifications mirror to the display with their real app icons.

On Android, Google Maps navigation notifications appear on your Car Thing screen with upcoming turns, distance, and arrival-time details.

Install Nocturne straight from the install page with Terbium — flashed and booted in minutes.

Connects to your phone over Bluetooth — no hotspot or tethering plan required.

Native accessory pairing on iOS and Android walks you through setup step by step.

Works with your phone locked and in your pocket, and reconnects automatically every time you get in the car.

Nocturne Connector turns a Raspberry Pi or Windows machine into a Wi-Fi bridge for your Car Thing, and Nocturne Companion for Mac works the same way at your desk.

Use the modern Nocturne UI, or switch to Mockingbird — a faithful recreation of the original Car Thing interface.

Tune gestures, knob behavior, the status bar, 12/24-hour time, idle behavior, and much more.

Type support for 12 language scripts, so your music renders correctly no matter what you listen to.

Firmware updates download through the app or Connector and install over Bluetooth — the device never leaves the dash.

Delta updates download only what changed, and UI or daemon fixes apply without reflashing.

The firmware is mostly open source on GitHub, excluding our backend and mobile apps.