Spotify has announced two new features for its in-app Messages system. The updates are called Listening Activity and Request to Jam. Both features are designed to make music sharing more interactive inside the app.
Spotify says Messages has seen strong usage since its launch last year. Nearly 40 million users have already sent close to 340 million messages. Most of these messages were to share songs, podcasts, and audiobooks. The new features build on that behavior by showing what friends are listening to and making it easier to listen together.
Listening Activity is an optional feature that lets users share what they are currently listening to in real time. If a user is not playing anything at the moment, Spotify will show the most recently played track instead.
This activity is visible only to people the user has already connected with through Messages. Users can also see the listening activity of others even if they choose not to share their own, as long as the other person has turned it on.
Listening Activity can be enabled or disabled from the Privacy and social settings. Once turned on, the activity appears in the Messages section and at the top of chats. Tapping on a friend’s listening activity allows users to play the track, save it, open more options, or react using one of six emojis.
Spotify is also expanding its Jam feature with a new option called Request to Jam. This feature allows users to invite friends or family into a live listening session directly from Messages.
Jam has already seen strong growth on Spotify, with daily usage more than doubling compared to last year. The new request option helps users know when someone is listening and makes it easier to start a shared session even when people are in different places.
Premium users can send a Jam request from a Messages chat. The recipient can accept or decline the invite. If accepted, the recipient becomes the host of the Jam session. Both users can then add songs to a shared queue and listen together in real time.
Listening Activity and Request to Jam are rolling out to users in markets where Messages is already available. The update is coming to both Android and iOS devices and is expected to be fully available in these regions by early February.
