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

Spotify is adding even more social features as it tries to prevent users from leaving the app to share music. The company on Wednesday he said introduces a new Messages feature that will allow users to see what their friends are broadcasting in real time and send requests to start Jam, the app’s collaborative listening feature.

Users should first navigate to their Settings and turn on the “listening activity” feature under the “Privacy & Social” section. Once this is done, listening activity will appear at the top of Messages conversations. You can tap a friend’s listening activity to play the track, save it, open the menu, or react with an emoji.

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

Listening Activity and Request to Jam will be released on the iOS and Android apps in markets where Messages is available, and will be widely available in those markets starting in early February. The Listening Activity is available to all users with access to Messages, while Free users can participate in a Jam Request session when invited by a Premium user.

Spotify notes that because both of these new features are available through Messages, they’re only available to users 16 and older.

The streaming platform launched Messages in August 2025 in an effort to become a more social app. While users have long shared Spotify links to music and podcasts outside the platform, the new messaging features mark a push to keep more interactions within the app as the company tries to increase 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 shared content with in the past, such as collaborators on a playlist or participants in a Jam or Blend. Messages are encrypted at rest and in transit, but not protected by end-to-end encryption.