Spotify, the world’s most popular music streaming platform, is introducing a new feature that lets users share and discover what others are listening to in real time. The "Listening Activity" feature, available via the Messages app, allows you to see what your friends and family are currently playing, but only if they opt in.
In recent years, Spotify has incorporated numerous social features. The Swedish company launched Messages last year, enabling users to share songs, podcasts, and audiobooks they find appealing.
Spotify users will now be able to view others' listening activity, even if they haven’t enabled their own, as long as they’ve opted in. To activate this, simply navigate to Privacy and Social Settings and toggle on Listening Activity.
Users can enable the Listening Activity feature through the Privacy and Social settings, found in the side menu next to the "View Profile" button.
Once activated, the activity will be visible in the chat section of the side menu and at the top of individual message threads.
By tapping on a friend's or family member's listening activity, users can add songs to their library, start playback, open the track’s context menu, or react using one of six available emojis.
"Today, we're building on that experience with two new Messages features: Listening activity and Request to Jam. Listening activity gives users a real-time look at what music their friends and family are listening to, while Request to Jam makes it easy to quickly turn those moments into shared listening sessions," the company said in an official blog post.
Spotify’s new Request to Jam feature lets Premium users invite friends or family to a live listening session via Messages. The request can be sent with a tap on the Jam button, and once accepted, the recipient hosts the session while both can add songs to the shared queue. Participants can also see suggested tracks based on their tastes.
Spotify has announced that the Listening activity and Request to Jam features are being gradually introduced to users in markets where Messages is available, on both Android and iOS platforms.