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Spotify continues its transformation from a music service to a full-fledged social platform and is expanding its messaging system by adding support for group chats. The company first launched the direct messaging feature back in August last year, allowing users to share tracks, podcasts, and audiobooks directly within the app. At the time, the innovation looked somewhat strange, as most people already use third-party messengers, but Spotify insisted that this feature was a response to user requests.
At launch, private messaging was made available to both free and premium accounts, but the rollout was gradual and started with Latin America. Later, the company promised to roll out the feature in the US, Canada, Brazil, and Australia. At the same time, Spotify immediately restricted the use of messages to mobile devices only; this feature is not available on the desktop version of the app. Another condition is that users must be at least 16 years old to participate in such chats.
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Now the service is taking the next step and opening group chats. To start a group chat, just go to the Messages section of the app and click the Create Group button at the top of the screen. You can add up to ten participants – friends or family members – to one chat. The important thing to note is that you can only invite people to groups who you’ve already interacted with before, for example, through shared playlists or other features of the service.
Messages in Spotify chats do not have end-to-end encryption, but the company assures that the data is protected during transmission and storage on servers.
The launch of group chats is another element of a series of updates that Spotify has been actively implementing this year. Earlier, the company transferred the Friend Activity feature from the desktop version to mobile devices, allocating a separate Friends tab for it. It allows you to see what your friends are listening to in real time, showing the track title, artist, and album artwork so you can instantly join in. However, this feature only works if users have not hidden their activity in their privacy settings.
Along with the expansion of social features, Spotify has also revised the cost of subscriptions in the US. The price of the individual plan has increased from $11.99 to $12.99 per month, the Duo plan has risen to $18.99, and the family plan now costs $21.99 per month.
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