Spotify has rolled out new social features that let users share their listening activity in real time and invite friends to listen together. The update aims to make music sharing more interactive, directly within Spotify’s Messages section.

Spotify has introduced Listening activity, a new opt-in feature that allows users to display what they are currently listening to inside Messages in real time. If a user is not actively listening, their most recently played song will be shown instead.

The feature is turned off by default and is visible only to friends and family already connected with the user on Spotify Messages.

How listening activity works

Users can enable Listening activity by heading to the Privacy and social settings within the Spotify app. Once turned on, listening activity appears in the chat row of the side drawer and at the top of Messages chats.

Only selected contacts can see this activity, and users can disable the feature at any time. Even if a user hasn’t enabled their own Listening activity, they can still view others’ activity, provided those users have opted in.

Interacting with friends’ music

When users tap on a friend’s listening activity, they can add the track to their library, play it instantly, open the track’s context menu, or react using one of six standard emojis.

This feature is designed to make music discovery more social without leaving the chat interface.

Spotify launches ‘request to Jam’

Spotify has also introduced Request to Jam, a new way to invite friends to join a live listening session. While the Jam feature has existed for some time, Spotify says it was often difficult to know when friends were available to listen together remotely.

Request to Jam solves this by showing when someone is already listening and allowing users to join them in real time while messaging simultaneously.

How request to Jam works

From a Messages chat in Spotify, Premium users can tap the Jam icon in the top-right corner to send a request for a remote Jam. If the request is accepted, the recipient becomes the host of the Jam session.

Both users can then add tracks to a shared queue and listen together. Users can leave a Jam at any time, and unanswered Jam requests will automatically expire after a few minutes.

Both Listening activity and Request to Jam are rolling out to Spotify users in markets where Messages is available. The features are launching on both iOS and Android devices.

Spotify says broad availability is expected by early February. Listening activity will be available to all users, while Request to Jam is limited to Spotify Premium subscribers.