is reportedly working on a new feature that would be the digital equivalent of you and a friend sharing the same headphones to listen to music together.
It’s already possible, of course, for users of the streaming music giant to keep up with what their friends are listening to and stocking their playlists with. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong, however, has found that Spotify appears to be testing a real-time sharing — meaning, you and your friends could soon have a joint listening session.
For now, this so-called “Social Listening” feature that Spotify is testing is a queue of tunes that participating friends can all add songs to and listen to, though there’s been speculation today this could be tweaked to eventually let everyone share a listening session, as well.
Spotify is working on Social Listening, letting friends to control music together with their own devices
Scan Spotify Code or open link for it to begin
For example, I'm listening Spotify right now. Feel free to introduce me new music: https://t.co/f59D0sis7Y pic.twitter.com/nPOlcPwQdG
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 31, 2019
Jane reverse engineers popular mobile apps and frequently scoops tech publications with news about updates and features that she quietly finds to be in the works — in fact, often scooping the companies themselves, before they’re ready to announce what they’re working on.
The prototype that Spotify is using for this feature shows the number of friends currently listening to a playlist, and the idea is that you would either scan a code or open a link to gain access to that playlist.
When connected to Spotify's Social Listening, you will show up on the "Already connected" list
The "Now Playing" UI will show the amount of friends listening
(friend's identity here replaced with mine for privacy) pic.twitter.com/Fo5rdH3xGO
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 31, 2019
A Spotify spokesperson told TechCrunch, when asked about this feature, that “We’re always testing new products and experiences, but have no further news to share at this time.” The site goes on to note that Spotify already offers playlists that friends can collaboratively add to, they just don’t have the real-time sharing element that’s envisioned with this new feature.
A feature like this could spur increased usage on a number of fronts, such as via extended listening sessions which would of course help on the advertising side. Promoting increased usage among friends might also serve as an unconscious spur to make sure everyone has the app within a friend circle, while even more importantly the feature could help Spotify pull away a little bit from rivals like its closest competitor, Apple Music.
