Spotify Introduces Real-Time Listening Activity to Let Users See What Friends Are Playing

Spotify, one of the world’s leading music-streaming platforms, continues to expand its social tools. After launching Messages last year—allowing users to share songs, podcasts, and audiobooks—the company has now added another interactive feature.

The new opt-in tool, called Listening Activity, lets users share and view what friends and family are listening to in real time through Messages. Once enabled, the feature displays your current music activity to contacts you’ve connected with via the Messages section.

According to Spotify, users will also be able to view others’ activity even if they choose not to share their own, provided they have opted into the feature. To activate it, users can visit the Privacy and Social settings and toggle on “Listening Activity.” After activation, listening updates will appear in the chat row of the side-panel drawer and at the top of individual Message threads.

Tapping on someone’s listening activity will allow users to add tracks to that person’s library, start playback, open the context menu, or react with emojis.

Spotify has also launched a second feature called Request to Jam, which enables Premium users to invite friends or family to a live listening session via Messages. By tapping the Jam button in a chat, users can send a request to start a remote Jam.

Read More:

Once the request is accepted, the recipient becomes the session host. However, the sender retains the ability to add songs to a shared queue so both can listen together. Spotify says Jam participants will see each other’s display names along with music recommendations tailored to their combined preferences.

Both Listening Activity and Request to Jam are now being rolled out across Messages-enabled markets on Android and iOS.