Spotify Messages receives two big upgrades, with group chats coming soon
Spotify Messages allows you to react to your friends’ listening activity with emojis.
- Spotify announces new ‘Request to Jam’ and real-time ‘Listening activity’ features.
- These will be available to Premium subscribers on iOS and Android from early February.
- Group chats are expected to launch in the near future.
Spotify launched its Messages feature in August last year. Now, the company is expanding this functionality to include ‘Request to Jam’ and ‘Listening activity’. These features will be available to Premium subscribers in Messages-enabled markets on iOS and Android devices from early February 2026. Together, they promise a more sociable and connected user experience.
Join my Jam, friend!
‘Request to Jam’ is Spotify’s answer to social media-style music sharing.
Joining remote Jams has been tedious for years. Historically, you’d be forced to join a Jam via a QR code, invitation link, or in-app pop-up when someone is playing music from a nearby device. Now, you can send Jam requests directly through Spotify Messages, allowing you to see when your friends are available without having to chase elsewhere.
To make this possible, Spotify has added a new ‘Request to Jam’ button to its Messages chats. Tapping this sends a request to your friend to start a remote Jam session. Once accepted, they become the host, and both parties can listen together and add tracks to a shared queue. Pending Jam invitations will expire if they aren’t accepted within a few minutes.
What are you listening to, buddy?
You can now share what you’re listening to with your friend in real-time.
Spotify is taking its social media plans to the next level with ‘Listening activity’. This is an opt-in feature that allows listeners to display the music they’re currently listening to within Spotify Messages. This is viewable via the side drawer’s chat row or in the chats themselves. Exploring others’ listening activity allows you to add tracks to your library, start playback, open the track’s context menu, or react with one of six emojis. Your most recently played song will be displayed when you’re not actively listening.
This feature is only available to friends and family you have already connected to. You can see others’ activity if you haven’t turned your own activity on, but only if they’ve opted in. You can control whether you want others to see your listening activity in Spotify’s ‘Privacy and social settings’ tab.
Music is best shared in Groups
Music is best shared, and what better place to share it than in music streaming group chats? To that end, Spotify has plans to expand Messages with a new ‘Groups’ feature. The public press release does not mention it, and a launch date has not been provided. However, Spotify referenced this feature in a direct email exchange with our sister site, Android Authority. Check back here for more updates in the near future.
