What standalone app did Spotify begin testing for Australian Android users on 31 January 2018?

Spotify began testing the standalone Stations by Spotify app for Australian Android users on 31 January 2018. It was designed as a simpler, Pandora-style listening experience built around instant playback and curated music stations.

Unlike Spotify’s main app, Stations emphasized a “lean-back” approach: users could open the app, choose a station, and start listening without searching for a specific song or artist. The service learned from listening feedback and offered stations based on genres, playlists, and personalization. The early test was ad-supported and limited to a small selection of Android devices.

The app’s name is sometimes shortened to “Stations,” but “Stations by Spotify” is the canonical name used in the historical description. It should not be confused with Car Thing, Spotify’s discontinued in-car hardware, Spotify Greenroom, the company’s live-audio app, or Spotify Lite, the reduced-data version of the main service.

Stations represented Spotify’s attempt to make free listening more immediate and radio-like. The experiment later expanded beyond its initial Australian Android test, but the question refers specifically to that first launch and its original standalone app.