Spotify is adding more social features as it seeks to keep users from leaving the app to share music. Company on Wednesday said it introduces a new Messages feature that will allow users to see what their friends are doing in real time and send requests to start Jams, the app’s collaborative listening feature.
Users must first navigate to Settings and turn on the “listening activity” feature in the “Privacy & Social” section. When you’re done, your listening activity will appear above your Messages conversation. You can tap your friend’s listening activity to play a track, save it, open a menu, or react with an emoji.
To start the Jam, Premium users can tap the “Jam” option in the upper right corner to send a request to their friends. If another user accepts, they will become the Jam host, and both users can add tracks to a shared queue and listen to music together.
Activity Listening and Clock Requests will be rolling out to the iOS and Android apps in markets where Messages is available, and will be available in those markets in early February. The Listening Activity is available to all users with access to Messages, while Free users can join Request to Jam sessions when invited by Premium users.
Spotify notes that since these two new features are available through Messages, they are only available to users 16 and older.
The first streaming platform opened Message in August 2025 to become a more social application. While users have long shared Spotify links to music and podcasts outside of the platform, the new messaging capabilities signal a push for more interactions within the app as the company looks to improve 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 shared content with, such as collaborators on playlists or participants in Jam or Blend. Messages are encrypted at rest and in transit, but not protected by end-to-end encryption.
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