Your Spotify Friends Can Now Spy on You

Spotify has introduced two new features to its in-app Messages system: real-time Listening activity and Request to Jam, both aimed at making music sharing more interactive among connected users.

This should make it easier for friends to spy on each other’s music listening activity, very similar to Discord when you connect it to Spotify.

Song Listening Activity Display

Spotify now allows users to display what they are listening to in real time within Messages. The feature, called Listening activity, is opt-in and disabled by default. When enabled, it shows the track a user is currently playing. If no music is actively playing, the most recently played song appears instead.

Listening activity is visible only to friends and family already connected through Spotify Messages. Users can see others’ listening activity even if they have not enabled their own, as long as the other person has opted in.

The feature can be turned on through the Privacy and social settings in the Spotify app. Once enabled, listening activity appears in the chat row of the side drawer and at the top of individual message threads. Users can control which contacts see their activity and can disable the feature at any time.

Tapping on a friend’s listening activity allows users to add tracks to their library, start playback, open the track’s context menu, or react using one of six preset emojis.

Request to Jam

Spotify has also introduced Request to Jam, a new way to start live listening sessions directly from Messages. While Spotify’s Jam feature has existed for remote group listening, the company says it has been difficult to know when friends are available to listen together.

Request to Jam addresses this by showing when a connected contact is already listening. Users can join an active session or send a request to start a Jam. Premium users can initiate a request by tapping the Jam icon in the top-right corner of a Messages chat.

If the request is accepted, the recipient becomes the host of the Jam session. Both participants can then add tracks to a shared queue and listen together in real time while messaging. Jam sessions can be left at any time, and unanswered requests automatically expire after a few minutes.

Availability and Access

Listening activity is available to all Spotify users, while Request to Jam is limited to Premium subscribers. Both features are rolling out on iOS and Android devices in regions where Spotify Messages is supported. Spotify says the rollout will be completed by early February.