Spotify users are now able to see what their friends are listening to in real-time and start shared listening sessions as part of the platform’s expansion of its in-app messaging feature.
The streaming giant launched its direct messaging feature in August 2025, which according to Spotify, was meant to make sharing music and other content easier.
Since the messaging feature’s launch, nearly 40 million users have sent about 340 million messages, the company revealed.
Spotify is now rolling out listening activity, an opt-in feature that displays what music a user is currently playing to their contacts on Spotify Messages. If the user isn’t playing a song, their recently played tracks will be displayed instead.
Users can tap on a friend’s listening activity to add tracks to their library, start playback, or react with emojis. The feature must be manually enabled through privacy and social settings and users have the option to turn it off.
“Listening activity is only shared with people you’ve already messaged on Spotify, and you’re always in control—only the contacts you choose can see your activity, and you can turn it off at any time.”
Spotify
Spotify explained that “Listening activity is only shared with people you’ve already messaged on Spotify, and you’re always in control—only the contacts you choose can see your activity, and you can turn it off at any time.”
The platform also rolled out Request to Jam, which allows users to invite friends into live listening sessions directly from message threads.
Spotify launched its Jam feature in September 2023, allowing up to 32 users to collectively build a playlist in real-time.
Spotify said: “With Jam, users can listen from anywhere—but it can be hard to know when your friends are available to listen together when you’re apart. Now, users can see when someone is already listening, join them, and even message in sync while listening so they can talk about what’s playing and what’s up next.”
Since the launch, daily active users of Spotify’s Jam feature have more than doubled year over year, according to the company.
“Now, users can see when someone is already listening, join them, and even message in sync while listening so they can talk about what’s playing and what’s up next.”
Spotify
Both new features started rolling out to users in Messages-enabled markets on iOS and Android devices and will be widely available by early February. Listening activity is available to all users with Messages access, while Request to Jam requires at least one Premium subscriber.
Spotify has been testing and rolling out new features in recent months to improve user experience. Last month, the platform launched a new feature called Prompted Playlist that lets users enter text prompts to build personalized playlists.
In November, Spotify integrated with third-party service TuneMyMusic to let users transfer playlists from rival music services, similar to a tool that Apple Music and YouTube Music have already introduced to attract more subscribers.
That same month, Spotify launched more detailed song credits in an effort to engage listeners more deeply with their favorite music. Previously, Spotify’s song credits included topline performers, songwriters and producers. The new credits expand that to include “all of the contributors who make each song possible,” including background vocalists, musicians, and engineers.
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