In a significant update, Spotify has expanded its social features with new real-time sharing features, particularly designed to keep users interacting inside the app.
The Swedish music streaming giant announced a new message update that allows users to see what their friends are listening to in real time and send requests to start Jams, the company’s collaborative listening feature.
Once enabled, a friend’s current track appears at the top of message chats. Users can tap the activity to play or save the track, open its menu, or react with an emoji.
To use real-time sharing, users are required to allow “listening activity” in the Privacy & Social section of Settings.
Premium users can initiate a Jam by clicking the Jam icon in the top-right corner of Messages and sending an invite.
If accepted, the friend becomes the Jam host, and both users can add songs to a shared queue and listen together.
Free users can join Jam sessions when invited by a Premium subscriber.
Availability
Spotify's recently launched features will be available on iOS and Android in markets where Messages is accessible, with a broader launch expected by early February.
Listening Activity is accessible to all users with access to Message, while Jam creation remains a Premium feature.
It is pertinent to mention that Messages are currently available for users aged 16 and above.
Messages released in August 2025 as part of the company’s push to boost user retention and minimise reliance on external apps for sharing music.
Messages currently support only one-on-one chats and are encrypted, though not end-to-end encrypted.
