The last thing you can expect from your music or podcast player is for it to be turned into a social app. But that’s exactly what’s happening to Spotify with its new messaging feature.
Announced via press release, the app will be introducing the ability to DM friends while listening to music. Through this function, users can send songs, podcasts, and audiobooks to fellow users and start chatting as normal.
Spotify reasoned that users wanted “a dedicated space within the app to share songs, podcasts, or audiobooks” as well as “an easy way to keep track of recommendations”. This added feature is also there to facilitate word-of-mouth, allowing content creators to receive new fans faster than they normally would.
Unlike traditional chats, this feature only has one-on-one conversations where you can share Spotify content. To access it, simply select any audio media you’d like to share and tap the share icon, select a friend, and hit send. Afterwards, you have the liberty to converse as you would in any messaging app, complete with emojis.
If you wish to view your inbox, simply tap your profile picture at the upper left-hand corner of the app. It is also worth mentioning that you can start an entirely new conversation without sending a recommendation by tapping the “New messages” option in the same tab. Additionally, Spotify also mentioned that all messages will be protected by “industry-standard encryption”.
Spotify will scan all messages for any “certain unlawful and harmful content”, applying the app’s Terms of Use and Platform Rules to prevent abuse or any misconduct. Furthermore, users will be given the option to reject messages and block users. Moreover, if you wish your media player to remain just that, you can opt out of the feature entirely.
Starting this week, both Free and Premium app users in “selected markets” will be able to access this feature; Spotify did not specify which markets are included in this list. During our testing, we found that this feature has not yet been added to the Malaysian version of the app yet.
(Source: Spotify)
