One of the most enjoyable things to do on Spotify is discovering and listening to new music, and one of the best sources for tunes that users will like is their friends. While it is certainly one of the most-used music-listening services to date, not a lot of people know that Spotify is also somewhat of a social media platform where people can interact with one another. Users can even link their Spotify with their Facebook account and add contacts who also happen to use the audio streaming service. Once friends are connected on the music platform, there are many Spotify features they can enjoy to heighten their shared sound-tripping experience.

Apart from being able to create collaborative playlists and compare musical tastes, Spotify users can also find out what songs, albums, or playlists their friends are currently enjoying, while they're actually listening to them. In order to take full advantage of the feature, users need to ensure that Spotify and Facebook are connected. Certain options in the Spotify settings also need to be enabled for their account and their friends' accounts as well.

Before getting started, users need to connect their Spotify and Facebook accounts using Spotify Desktop. Once the app is launched, click on the dropdown arrow on the top-right corner of the screen next to the user profile photo and select 'Settings.' Under 'Social,' click 'Connect with Facebook.' All that's left to do is enter the Facebook login credentials and hit 'Log In.'

How To Follow Friends & See Their Activity On Spotify

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Once Spotify is connected to Facebook, and while still in 'Settings,' scroll down to 'Display Options' and enable 'See what your friends are playing.' This should pull up the Friend Activity sidebar on the right. Under 'Social,' switch the 'Share my listening activity on Spotify' toggle to green to enable. Users can then start following Facebook friends on Spotify by tapping the 'Add Friends' icon on the top-right corner of the Friend Activity sidebar and hitting the 'Add Friend' button next to someone's name. Alternatively, friends can also be followed through the Spotify mobile app. Tap on the gear icon at the top-right corner of the page and hit 'View Profile.' Tap the three-dot icon at the top-right corner then choose 'Find Friends.' Then hit 'Follow All' or the 'Add Friend' icon next to someone specific.

The Friend Activity on Spotify Desktop should show what a listener's friends are currently listening to. If not, it will show the last song they heard and how long ago it was played. Clicking on their current or last-played track's details will bring up the page for either the song, the artist, the album it belongs to, or the playlist it's included in. Users can then play a sample, and if they decide they like it, save it to their own Spotify library or download it for offline listening. If the Friend Activity sidebar doesn't seem to be updating in real-time, Spotify recommends updating the desktop app or the desktop computer's operating system, restarting the app, logging out of Spotify then back in, or reinstalling Spotify Desktop altogether. Additionally, users should make sure their friends have Friend Activity enabled on their end.

Some friends may not be using Spotify with a Facebook account, but users can still check out and copy their playlists by directly adding them as a friend through their Spotify username. Simply type 'spotify:user:username' in Spotify Desktop's search bar, replace 'username' with their own moniker, and then hit enter. If the username exists, it should pull up their profile page. Hit 'Follow' and to have them show up on the Friend Activity sidebar, ask them to follow back and enable the necessary Display and Social options under Spotify Desktop's settings.

Can You View Friend Activity On Mobile?

Spotify Community On Mobile
Image: Chris Messina/Twitter

At the moment, viewing Friend Activity is only available on the desktop, but Spotify is working on bringing this feature to mobile. Given the social nature of Friend Activity, it's surprising that Spotify doesn't have the feature on its mobile apps yet. However, in June this year, TechCrunch confirmed that Spotify was working on a new 'Community' tab for its mobile apps. Community will be a dedicated section where users can see what their friends are listening to in real time as well as any playlists they've recently updated.

The feature isn't directly accessible on the app yet, but screenshots were shared by Chris Messina on Twitter. In the Spotify app, the Community tab displays 'Playlist Updates' in a horizontally scrolling bar at the top, while 'Listening now' activity is vertically scrollable on the same page. If a friend is currently listening to a particular track, it will be indicated by music equalizer bars next to their name. If not, users will see a timestamp next to their last streamed track on Spotify.

Source: Spotify 1, 2, 3, TechCrunch, Chris Messina/Twitter