Spotify now lets you share what you’re streaming in real time with friends

Spotify is adding more social features as it seeks to prevent users from leaving the app to share music. The company said Wednesday it is introducing a new messaging feature that will let users see what their friends are streaming in real time and send requests to start Jams, the app’s collaborative listening feature.

Users will first have to go to their settings and turn on the Listening Activity feature in the Privacy and Social section. Once you’re done, your listening activity will appear at the top of your message conversations. You can tap your friend’s listening activity to play the track, save it, open the list, or react with an emoji.

As for starting a Jam, Premium users can tap on the “Jam” option in the top right corner to send a request to their friends. If the other user accepts, they will become the Jam host, and both users will be able to add tracks to a shared queue and listen to music together.

Listening and Jam ordering will be rolled out to iOS and Android apps in markets where Messages is available, and will be widely available in those markets by early February. Listening activity is available to all users with access to Messages, while Free users can join a Request to Jam session when invited by a Premium user.

Spotify notes that because these two new features are available through messages, they are only available to users 16 and older.

The streaming platform first launched Messages in August 2025 in an attempt to become a more social app. While users have long shared Spotify links to music and podcasts outside of the platform, the new messaging capabilities signal a push to maintain more in-app interactions as the company looks to increase user retention metrics and attract more paying users.

Messages on Spotify can only be sent to individual users at this time, and you can only chat with people you’ve previously shared content with, like playlist collaborators or Jam or Blend participants. Messages are encrypted at rest and in transit, but are not protected by end-to-end encryption.