- Spotify is obtaining a new direct messages function in “Select markets”
- It will let you share music, podcasts and audiobooks with friends.
- The function will be available for free and premium subscribers.
Spotify has announced a new surprise feature for free and premium subscribers: the ability to send direct messages to friends in the mobile application.
The messages has landed to encourage him to share music, podcast and audiobook recommendations with friends. But instead of simply letting you share links, the function will be a complete messaging application within Spotify in iOS and Android.
A key detail is missing: Spotify says that the feature is being implemented for free and premium users of 16 years or more this week “in markets selected on mobile devices”, but has not yet specified what markets. We have asked Spotify clarifications about availability, and we will update this story when we receive an answer.
You can access Spotify messages in several ways. The history of your messages will live in your profile section in the upper left corner of the application. When you have accepted a message application, you can react with emojis and send text messages, just like a WhatsApp DM.
Naturally, Spotify will also encourage you to send messages throughout the application. In the game view now, which is already quite crowded, the shared icon will also give you the option of sending a message to a friend.
How does Spotify plan to prevent messages from becoming a spam festival? To begin with, you can choose not to participate completely in the application configuration. You will also get the option to accept or reject messages, block other users or inform offensive messages.
Spotify also says that the messages are protected by the “standard encryption of the industry”, although it does not specify what it is. The transmission service will also use “proactive detection technology to scan messages for certain illegal and harmful content”, which can discourage many of sharing anything beyond their new favorite song.
Analysis: an explosion of the past, but not from the future of HIFI that many want
They have spent almost 15 years since Apple announced the unfortunate iTunes Ping, a “social network oriented to music” designed to “follow their favorite artists and friends to discover what music are talking about.”
While Spotify messages are not the same, taking the private DM route instead of the public social network, feels motivated by the same desires. Namely, to keep you attached to the Spotify application itself, instead of sharing your favorite songs on WhatsApp.
Spotify had a characteristic similar to the messages in its early days, but it was too long for most current users to remember. As someone who has been paying for Spotify during the last decade, I don’t see myself using the function when it is so easy to share links in dedicated messaging applications, and the initial reaction of Spotify fans has been frozen.
The comments about Reddit’s tastes lament the “drag source” within the Spotify application, which is something I wrote a couple of years ago when he added his vertical scroll in the Tiktok style.
Responding to Spotify’s announcement in X, other users continue their shouts of “bringing Hifi”, referring to the long -awaited lossless audio plan. There is still the possibility that Spotify can deliver that in 2025, with rumors earlier this year that point to the launch of a Music Pro plan.
This speculation suggested that the plan could provide lossless audio, ticket offers for concerts and remix tools with AI (which are very similar to the new mix of spotify), for an additional $ 6 in addition to the premium plan of $ 12 per month (or an additional one in the United Kingdom and au $ 7 in Australia).
However, several months have passed since those rumors, so I do not blame their fellow Spotify fans for putting on antenna when the service prioritizes new features such as messages that few have been asking.
Ultimately, messages could be popular among some, but would bet that most users (such as me) have already established their music exchange habits in WhatsApp tastes, and messages could become another feature that dilutes the increasingly wide offer of Spotify, which causes many to look for alternatives between the best music transmission services.
