Spotify is expanding its in-app Messages sharing experience with new features.
Since launching in the app last summer, almost 40 million users have sent nearly 340 million messages to share what they’re streaming.
Spotify’s new Messages features include Listening Activity and Request To Jam. Listening activity gives users a real-time look at what music their friends and family are listening to, while Request To Jam makes it possible to quickly turn those moments into shared listening sessions.
Listening Activity is an opt-in feature that allows users to display what music they are currently listening to within Messages in real time. When not actively listening, the most recently played song will be displayed instead.
The music activity will be visible only to friends and family a user has already connected with on Messages.
Users can turn on listening activity via privacy and social settings. If a user taps on their friend or family member’s listening activity, they will be able to add tracks to their library, start playback, open the track’s context menu, or react with one of six standard emojis.
To complement Listening Activity, Spotify is introducing the Request To Jam feature, a new way for users to invite friends or family they’re connected with in Messages into a live listening session.
Spotify reported that its existing Jam feature has been growing in popularity, with daily active users more than doubling year-on-year. Users can now see when someone is already listening, join them and message in sync while listening to discuss what’s playing and what’s up next.
From a Messages chat, Premium users can tap Jam in the top right corner to send a request to a friend for a remote Jam. If accepted, the recipient becomes the host of the Jam session. From there, both participants in the Jam can add tracks to a shared queue and listen together.
Listening Activity and Request To Jam are now rolling out to users in Messages-enabled markets on iOS and Android devices. The features will be broadly available in these markets by early February.
Listening Activity is available to all users with Messages access, and free users can join a Request To Jam session when invited by a Premium user.
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