Spotify Introduces New Social Feature: See Your Friends' Music Activity in Real Time

Spotify has made listening to music even more fun and social. With the new Listening Activity feature, users can now see in real time what songs their friends are listening to. Let's find out more...

Spotify has launched a new and exciting social feature for its users, making the music listening experience even more connected. This new feature is called Listening Activity, and it allows users to see in real time what their friends or family members are listening to at that moment. Spotify already offers features like sharing playlists, sending songs, and Jam sessions, but this new update provides a shared music experience. The company says the goal of this feature is to bring people closer through music, so that listening is not just a solitary experience.

How to activate the Listening Activity feature?

Listening Activity is an opt-in feature, meaning the user has to turn it on themselves. To activate it, go to the Spotify app, then to Privacy and Social Settings, and toggle on ‘Listening Activity’. After this, your music activity will be visible to the friends you are connected with through Messages. Importantly, even if a friend hasn't turned on their Listening Activity, you can still see their activity, provided they have permitted this feature. Your activity will appear in the Messages side panel and above the chat, making it instantly clear who is listening to what.

What are the features of Listening Activity?

With this feature, Spotify has also made interaction easier. If you tap on a friend's Listening Activity, you can directly play the same song, add it to your library, open the context menu, or react with emojis. This means it's now possible not only to see what someone is listening to, but also to react to it instantly. This makes conversations and sharing about music among friends even more enjoyable, especially for those who love discovering new songs.

What is the Request to Jam feature? In addition, Spotify has introduced another new feature called Request to Jam. This feature is specifically for Premium users and allows you to invite friends or family members to a live Jam session. You can send a Jam request by tapping the Jam button in the Messages chat. When the other person accepts the request, they become the host of the Jam session, but the person who sent the request can also add songs to the shared queue. During the Jam session, all participants can see each other's display names and receive song suggestions based on their combined music tastes. Spotify has stated that both of these new features are being gradually rolled out to Messages-enabled markets on Android and iOS.