Spotify Community is in the works, it is a new feature that would allow mobile users to see what music their friends are listening to in real time.
Users will also be able to see what playlists their friends have recently updated in a special location within the app, according to TechCrunch.
What is Spotify Community?
Spotify’s introduction of Facebook integration helped the firm build its friendship graph in the past. However, in recent years, Spotify has focused on unique features to give it a competitive advantage over other streaming services. Spotify’s Discover Weekly is one such feature which is very successful together with seeing what friends are listening to when it comes to attracting and keeping users. As a result, user-generated peer networks were deemphasized within the product.
Despite this, some people still wanted access to their Friend Activity on their phones in 2019, when the firm rejected plans to add this functionality after a user request received 7,451 votes on its community forums.
It now appears that the platform may be turning in a new direction with Spotify Community.
Although not yet exposed through the app, mobile users may use this new Spotify Community feature by entering “spotify: community” into their Safari browser on their iOS device, according to the source.
Chris Messina noticed the change first, and he shared a video of it on Twitter last month along with a longer list of Spotify app improvements.
Ready? Here's my secret!
Spotify has a new Community Hub to see what your friends are listening to live and what playlists they've recently updated.
I have no idea who Andrew Orona is, though. ?
Want access? SuperFollow me and I'll tell you how! ?#NewSpotify #SocialAudio pic.twitter.com/hmlA52CVEj
— ˗ˏˋ Chris Messina ˎˊ˗ (@chrismessina) June 1, 2022
How does Spotify Community work?
You’ll find a horizontal row of Playlist Updates at the top of the Community page, followed by a vertically scrollable list of friends and what they’re listening to now, with timestamps indicating when that listening session started.
For those who are listening, animated music equalizer bars appear next to their name and song choice. Otherwise, the screen will display when your friend listened to Spotify and what they streamed. Spotify added timestamps to playlist updates in an updated version of the Community tab, allowing you to see what has been added most recently.
Despite Spotify’s lack of focus on its Friend Activity features, it maintains a strong connection with Meta (Facebook). Despite the fact that younger generations are more readily discovering new music via TikTok and many Generation Z users don’t even have a Facebook account, today’s social graphs continue to rely on a Facebook integration.
For example, Spotify and Facebook collaborated on a little player that streamed Spotify from the Facebook app last year. However, before ending a number of audio projects to focus instead on its metaverse efforts, Facebook competed with Spotify for podcasts for a brief time.
If a social feature on mobile were decoupled from Facebook in some way, it would be even more thrilling, but the current version of the function does not appear to support that.
The new feature, which will be accessible on PC and mobile versions of Spotify, provides a similar “Friend Activity” function but with more restricted usage on smartphones. The functionality was still in the early stages of development, according to Spotify, but it declined to provide further information.
The company’s early history as a social music streaming app helped it develop over time by leveraging its Facebook integration to expand its friendship graph. However, in recent years, Spotify has focused on customization features to set it apart from rivals, such as Apple Music, in the streaming market. Check out our comparison: Apple Music vs Spotify article to see the differences between two apps. If you are not subscribed to a music streaming service, there are a lot of useful information in there before you decide.
