Snap Map rolls out Now Playing feature: Check details

Snapchat is turning its map into a soundtrack. The company is rolling out a new feature called Now Playing that lets users share what they're listening to in real time, TechCrunch has learned exclusively.

The feature pairs with a user’s streaming service, such as Spotify, showing their currently playing song on Snap Map for their friends to see. The feature will not reveal the listening history or the last played song, and the sharing will be active only until the user opens Snapchat within 24 hours since the previous time they used it.

Additionally, users have an option of manually switching off sharing for three hours, 24 hours, or indefinitely, allowing users to choose who they want to share their music with.

Also, Now Playing allows the user to pair with Spotlight, which is the short-form videos on Snapchat, making it possible for the user to save the song found in any Spotlight video to Spotify.

"Music is one of the most personal ways people express themselves, and it becomes even more meaningful when it brings friends closer," said Manny Adler, Snapchat's head of music, adding that the feature is meant to help users "share the soundtrack to their day" while discovering new music through people they already know.

It is not just Snapchat that has gone for the audio features of social media, as TikTok also allows for the sharing and saving of audio clips from various streaming services, Instagram highlights listening behaviour using Notes above the inbox of users’ direct messages, and Spotify has itself introduced listening shares with friends.

Now Playing continues this trend by including the same in the Snap Map, which started out as a friend location service in 2017 but has evolved since then and now has over 450 million monthly active users.