Spotify is making a big social push with a new messaging feature

Spotify’s last few feature drops have been neat. The streaming giant has not only recently unlocked new Audibooks+ plans, which give users more audiobook streaming hours paired with family sharing, it also launched a new Apple Music-like song transition feature.

Additionally, after several delays, the streaming giant’s long-awaited Hi-Fi tier is now reportedly closer than ever. Those are all great, but Spotify now also seems to be making a social push by rolling out a feature that once existed on the platform.

The streaming giant announced earlier today that it is rolling out a new messaging feature on its mobile app, essentially giving you “a new way to share what you love on Spotify with friends and family.” For what it’s worth, Spotify had a native messaging system up until 2017, but it was removed because of “very low engagement.”

With the feature now making a comeback, Spotify is making it clear that its native messaging is meant to support existing messaging platforms, and not replace them.

Here’s how it works

• Head to a song or podcast episode and tap the share icon. If the feature has been rolled out to you, you should see a magnifying glass icon on the first toolbar.
• Find the person you’re looking to message. The list will contain users that you follow, those you’ve been in a shared Jam with, those you’ve shared content with before, users that have a collaborative playlist with you, and others. Alternatively, you can also send a friend a link to share and initiate a chat with you in Spotify messages.
• Once your message request has been accepted, your friends and family members will be able to reply to your messages with texts and emojis.
• You’ll be able to access your complete chat list by tapping your profile photo in the top left corner.

You, as a user, have the option to accept or reject message requests from other users. You also have the option to block other users and/or completely opt out of the messaging experience through the app’s settings.

Elsewhere, if you do decide to use Spotify as a messaging platform for your song-sharing needs, your conversations will be encrypted “in transit and at rest,” though they won’t be completely end-to-end encrypted. This means that Spotify, if needed, will be able to access aid messages.

Spotify messaging is rolling out now, and will be available widely over the coming week to Premium and non-Premium users.