Spotify adds group chats to turn music listening into real-time conversations

Spotify is expanding its social networking features in January 2026 by introducing group chats inside the app. The new Spotify group chats allow up to 10 people to message, share links and react while listening together, all within the app.

Spotify group chats now have a new update that brings back familiar WhatsApp features, which Spotify built to create a musical chat environment. Users can talk about the songs or podcasts they are listening to in real time.

Users need to have an active connection through collaborative playlists or Jam sessions or Blend to access this feature. The system maintains listening-based discussions while decreasing spam messages. Users can send short messages and reactions through Spotify group chats, which include links but do not support extended discussions.

How to start group chats on Spotify?

The Spotify messaging feature requires users to access their profile picture and navigate through Settings and privacy, then the Notifications and Social features before they can activate Messages. Group chats become available to users only after they set up listening connections with other users.

The new Spotify feature which has been developed for mobile devices is not accessible through desktop platforms. Spotify made its one-to-one messaging available to users, which introduced group chats as a new feature.

The chats lack end-to-end encryption, which enables Spotify to retrieve user messages during necessary circumstances. For most users who want to discuss music, this security issue does not present a serious threat.

Spotify has announced that it will not transform this feature into a social media or messaging platform because its goal is to establish a basic environment where users exchange music-related discussions. The interactive features of Spotify group chats and collaborative playlists and Jam sessions enable users to interact, which results in increased platform usage time for Spotify.