Hopefully you will  be informed  by the company...?...

No Information till now.🙁

I found a cheap workaround (for the meantime). Took my Amazon Dot and connected it via Cable to the Essence. The Dot supports Spotify connect. It works fine.

The Spotify Support confirmed, that the Essence is no longer supported by Spotify connect. As I understood, there will be more B&O devices without Sp. connect soon.

My B&O Dealer could not confirm this, but gave me the note, that B&O will pretty shure no longer support SP. connect in new devices. The M3 ist the first in this line without connect. Instead they will increase the usage of Chromecast.

I just received an A9 mk1 and it won’t connecy either. Guess that’s all related the thI Spotify support thing too.

Could this have something to do with the recent rumours that they are developing their own hardware, like the HomePod?

http://variety.com/2018/digital/news/spotify-hardware-1202704960/ 

So looks like Airplay and Chromecast will be the principal workarounds for Spotify + B&O 'integration' going forwards. 

Maybe.

Another possible reason:

  link target="_blank" title="https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/1/14776780/spotify-hi-fi-preparing-launch-lossless-audio-tier</span><span style="font-size:12px;">">https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/1/14776780/spotify-hi-fi-preparing-launch-lossless-audio-tier

Since Chromecast implementation they already have, which allows lossless and even Hi Res streaming up to 96.0 kHz, this means less programming efforts and thus developing costs for streaming Spotify flawlessly on various devices.

But, just wondering about B&O information policy?

At least their dealers should know and keep customers informed. It was announced many months ago.

That's much more plausible @Ulrike, makes perfect sense really. 

Also good shout on information flow from B&O; it can't be impossible to push such notices into the B&O app, without using notifications. I am only an iOS user, so I don't know what the 'droid m.o. is for permitting alerts/notifications. On iOS you'd have to opt-in at app launch. 

And yes, you'd expect the information to be in the hands of dealers early on in the game, even if it's 'this is coming, we don't know what it means yet, stand by'.

Interesting news on Spotify Hi-Fi too! 

Just checked my A9 mk1, and the Connect feauture is missing in mine too. 

This is quite the blow, as we use the Spotify Connect feature as the only way to connect to the speaker.

I hate Airplay. It never really became useful. Too many drop outs and too high battery consumption on the host device. 

Hopefully I’ll be able to fit a Chromecast Audio in the back of the A9 and use the RCA input. And not have any problems.

Im quite disappointed that I have to find out like this. The only referenced system in the Spotify press release was the Beosound5. 

B&O should as a minimum have this information corrected to reflect all products now missing Spotify Connect. 

Is another device like the Chromecast really an option? I mean you'd attach to the super expensive A9 a cheap DAC, which harms sound quality.

Since Spotify Connect is gone, is Deezer a proper replacement? I understand that the client is running on the speaker itself (e.g. Essence MKII, A9, etc) independently, so no streaming from mobile device is required.