Spotify Adds New Social Listening Features to Mobile App

Spotify has begun implementing “Listening Activity” and “Request to Jam” directly into its mobile app’s messaging interface. According to a report by CNET, these features are designed to streamline the community listening experience and allow users to engage with friends’ music choices without leaving the application. The company stated that since the launch of its Messages feature, nearly 40 million users have exchanged approximately 340 million messages, indicating a strong existing appetite for in-app communication. Both new features are available to users aged 16 and older.

Listening Activity

The “Listening Activity” feature enables users to share the music they are currently streaming with their contacts within Spotify Messages. If a user is not actively playing a song, the feature displays their most recently played track. This functionality is not automatic; subscribers must opt in via their Privacy and social settings to activate it. Once enabled, a user’s listening activity is visible only to people they are already connected with on Messages, and users retain control over which contacts can view their activity, with the option to disable the feature at any time. Recipients can tap on a friend’s listening activity to play the song, add it to their own library, or react with one of six available emojis.

Request to Jam

Complementing “Listening Activity,” the “Request to Jam” feature facilitates the initiation of live listening sessions directly from message threads. While the core Jam feature was introduced in September 2023 and supports up to 32 users, “Request to Jam” allows a Premium subscriber to send an invitation to a contact to start a shared session. Free subscribers can join a Jam if invited. Upon acceptance, the recipient becomes the host, and both participants can add songs to a shared queue and listen in sync. Unanswered requests will time out after a few minutes, according to the original reporting.

Spotify stated that these updates reflect its commitment to community-driven experiences and are intended to make it easier for users to keep up with what friends and family are listening to. According to a report by PhoneArena, this strategic move aims to centralize music-related conversations within the Spotify app, reducing the need for users to share song links or coordinate listening sessions on external social media platforms. This aligns with a broader industry trend where streaming services are exploring ways to foster more direct social interaction within their ecosystems, moving beyond simple sharing functions.

The exact date for the full global rollout by early February has not been specified. While the company has provided figures on message activity, specific engagement metrics for the new “Listening Activity” and “Request to Jam” features are not yet available.

Users in Messages-enabled markets on both iOS and Android platforms can expect to see these features become widely accessible in the coming weeks. The integration of “Listening Activity” and “Request to Jam” is expected to further boost engagement with Spotify‘s existing Jam feature, which has already seen its daily active users more than double year over year since its launch. This expansion may indicate a continued focus by Spotify on evolving its platform into a more comprehensive social hub for music enthusiasts, potentially influencing future feature developments around community building.

• Check your Spotify mobile app for the “Listening Activity” and “Request to Jam” features, which are rolling out incrementally.
• Navigate to your Profile and then Privacy and social settings within the app to opt in and enable “Listening Activity.”
• Ensure you are running the latest version of the Spotify app on your iOS or Android device to access these new functionalities.
• If you have a Premium account, explore sending “Request to Jam” invitations to friends directly from your message chats.