Spotify Adds Real-Time Listening Activity And ‘Request To Jam’ To Messages

Spotify today launched two new social features in its app, making it easier for users to see what their friends are listening to and introducing the option for them to start a group session with friends from their phones. The updates bring real-time listening activity and a more seamless process for jumping into remote Jam sessions, furthering Spotify’s efforts to make music discovery and listening more social within the app.

Spotify introduced Messages in August last year, and nearly 40 million users have already sent almost 340 million messages, according to the company. With those new elements, Messages is evolving from a simple chat app to one that enables live music interaction.

Real-Time Listening Activity Comes to Messages

Spotify, the music streaming app, wants to empower users to see what their friends are listening to. If a user is actually playing music, that person’s track instantly appears in Messages. If you’re not currently listening, Spotify displays instead the last played song.

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The feature is optional, and it can be turned on through privacy and social settings. Activity from listening is only visible to friends or family a user has already engaged with in Messages. Spotify says listeners have control over who sees their listening activity and can turn this off at any time; they can also remove any songs that they don’t want to appear on the list of tracks in “Made for You”.

After you turn it on, your listening activity will be included in the Messages side drawer as well as at the top of private chats. Tapping a friend’s activity allows people to play the song, save it and add it to their library, open the track menu or respond with one of six default emojis. Users are also able to see others’ listening activity even if they have not enabled their own, provided the other person has opted in.

‘Request to Jam’ Makes Shared Listening Easier

In addition to listening, this brings us Request to Jam, a new feature that lets you go straight from Messages into shared listening. Jam lets several users listen together and add songs to a single queue, even if they are in different locations.

Spotify reports that daily active usage of Jam has more than doubled year over year, and the new Messages integration is designed to make it easier to collaborate on sessions. Spotify Premium subscribers can send a Jam request to a chat right from the button in the chat itself. The invitee has the option of accepting or declining, but if accepted, he’s the host.

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Either user can add songs to the queue and send messages while the music is playing. Unaccepted Jam invitations expire after a few minutes. Users can view each other’s display names and get song recommendations based on their collective listening preferences. You can join or leave a Jam at will.

After all, free users have the opportunity to join a Jam after being invited by a Premium subscriber, just not to start one on their own.

Availability and Age Limits

The listening activity is starting to go live for all users who have access to Spotify Messages, while Request to Jam is available on a Premium membership to start. Both features are going live on iOS and Android to those in countries where chats are already supported, with broader availability slated for no later than early February.

Because the tools are part of Messages, they have an age cutoff of 16 years and older. The updates signal that Spotify is perhaps doubling down on the social listening, making private chats into live, shared music experiences instead of just conversations about songs.