Spotify's Group Session Feature Now Lets Long-Distance Friends Listen to Playlists and Podcasts Together

[MacRumors]

Spotify Premium subscribers can now simultaneously listen to music playlists and podcasts with their friends, wherever they are in the world.

The new feature is the latest evolution of Spotify's Group Session beta, which launched back in May and allowed Premium users in the "same space" to share and control music together in real time. Spotify's newsroom post explains:

In our latest innovation, we're taking Group Session one step further with brand-new functionality that allows Spotify Premium users around the world to tune into the same playlist or podcast simultaneously. So no matter the distance—whether six feet apart or a thousand miles away—you and the members of your squad can now each listen to the same content at the same time on your own devices (as well as control playback).

Groups of two to five people can use the new feature at once by sharing a "join" link shared via messaging apps or over social media.

All you have to do is click or tap the Connect menu in the bottom-left corner of the play screen and scroll down to "Start a group Session." There you should find the invite link to share with your guests, or they can scan the Spotify code to join the session.

From there, both host and guests can pause, play, skip, and select tracks on the queue as well as add in choices of their own using the standard controls. If one person makes a change, it will immediately be reflected on all participant devices.

Spotify says that while Group Session is still in beta, it's committed to evolving and improving the experience over time.

Article Link: Spotify's Group Session Feature Now Lets Long-Distance Friends Listen to Playlists and Podcasts Together

 

[xxray]

I wish Apple Music was innovating like this. Still can’t even get a comparable feature to Spotify Connect after how many years of it being one of the most requested features.

 

[hidekigomi]

I'm not trying to be sarcastic or mean - I had the same question for the headphone splitters, do people share what the others are listening to? I haven't had a single occasion to ask or be asked "do you want to listen to what I'm listening?" I must be old!

 

[MauiPa]

The biggest non-feature ever created

 

[atoqir]

I wish Apple Music was innovating like this. Still can’t even get a comparable feature to Spotify Connect after how many years of it being one of the most requested features.

Connect is usefull because it works between a lot of third party platforms. Think Windows, Android, iOS, PlayStation, Chomecast, WebOS TV's, browser, soundbars and much more. It all works with 1 click.

We all know how interested is in offering easy transition between platforms...

Same with Apple TV+. It is beyond me why there aren't Xbox and Playstation apps.

 

[MauiPa]

I wish Apple Music was innovating like this. Still can’t even get a comparable feature to Spotify Connect after how many years of it being one of the most requested features.

That sounds like a big nothing to me, but OK, maybe you do want it.

I am still waiting for Spotify to "innovate" and create a decent Mac application that can airplay to stereo like Apple Music can. Still waiting. with Apple Music you play to the stereo and have a separate audio stream for you Mac so you can work, take conference calls, watch the news, etc on the other audio "channel". It's great.

I am also still waiting for the "innovation" where Spotify supports the 10s of millions of customers it has on iPhones and sends them AAC compressed files directly. Instead, they send compressed files that need to be decompressed and then recompressed into AAC resulting in lots of popping and drop outs which many wrongly blame on their earphones. I suppose you could argue that Apple could change, but hey with Spotify's 138 million paying subscribers, does it really cost Spotify anything to enhance customer service? No, they are doing it because they like to whine instead of making the best products.

 

[Beavix]

they send compressed files that need to be decompressed and then recompressed into AAC resulting in lots of popping and drop outs which many wrongly blame on their earphones.

I haven’t noticed anything like that. The music on Spotify sounds perfectly fine to me, on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple earbuds, Beats Studio 3 etc.

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

That sounds like a big nothing to me, but OK, maybe you do want it.

I am still waiting for Spotify to "innovate" and create a decent Mac application that can airplay to stereo like Apple Music can. Still waiting. with Apple Music you play to the stereo and have a separate audio stream for you Mac so you can work, take conference calls, watch the news, etc on the other audio "channel". It's great.

I am also still waiting for the "innovation" where Spotify supports the 10s of millions of customers it has on iPhones and sends them AAC compressed files directly. Instead, they send compressed files that need to be decompressed and then recompressed into AAC resulting in lots of popping and drop outs which many wrongly blame on their earphones. I suppose you could argue that Apple could change, but hey with Spotify's 138 million paying subscribers, does it really cost Spotify anything to enhance customer service? No, they are doing it because they like to whine instead of making the best products.

Spotify connect isn’t a big nothing for ppl with a lot of non Apple devices. It is one of the features I love about Spotify.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

That sounds like a big nothing to me, but OK, maybe you do want it.

I use Spotify connect daily without even thinking about it, it's built in so well. I use it to control music playing on my Alexa speaker. I use it with my Apple Watch as a remote for my phone. I use it to switch from playing music on my computer to my phone. It's my one of my favourite features Spotify offers over Apple Music, and it's kept me with Spotify for so long.

But you're entitled to your own opinion.

 

[jsmith189]

Since literal day 1 of Apple Music I’ve wanted this. Hopefully they implement something similar.

 

[jhsfosho]

I am still waiting for Spotify to "innovate" and create a decent Mac application that can airplay to stereo like Apple Music can. Still waiting. with Apple Music you play to the stereo and have a separate audio stream for you Mac so you can work, take conference calls, watch the news, etc on the other audio "channel". It's great.

Why are you trying to Airplay Spotify? Just use Spotify Connect to stream music to an Apple TV Spotify app or any of the hundreds of other devices that are Spotify Connect streaming compatible.

If you're that desperate to use Airplay, you could airplay from your iPhone or iPad and use the Spotify desktop app to control the song selection, once again via the Spotify Connect feature.

 

[xxray]

That sounds like a big nothing to me, but OK, maybe you do want it.

I am still waiting for Spotify to "innovate" and create a decent Mac application that can airplay to stereo like Apple Music can. Still waiting. with Apple Music you play to the stereo and have a separate audio stream for you Mac so you can work, take conference calls, watch the news, etc on the other audio "channel". It's great.

I am also still waiting for the "innovation" where Spotify supports the 10s of millions of customers it has on iPhones and sends them AAC compressed files directly. Instead, they send compressed files that need to be decompressed and then recompressed into AAC resulting in lots of popping and drop outs which many wrongly blame on their earphones. I suppose you could argue that Apple could change, but hey with Spotify's 138 million paying subscribers, does it really cost Spotify anything to enhance customer service? No, they are doing it because they like to whine instead of making the best products.

Why are you this angry about a competitor getting compliments its on features?

 

[JunBringer]

I'm not trying to be sarcastic or mean - I had the same question for the headphone splitters, do people share what the others are listening to? I haven't had a single occasion to ask or be asked "do you want to listen to what I'm listening?" I must be old!

A lot of my friends and I are into this sort of thing. Especially now with the pandemic we can hang out and listen to music "together".

 

[TheSkywalker77]

A lot of my friends and I are into this sort of thing. Especially now with the pandemic we can hang out and listen to music "together".

Discord added Spotify integration a while ago, and a feature similar to this came with it. I've loved using it, and I can't wait to use Spotify's own version of it.

 

[Ross Erickson]

How about actually finishing the 'Lyrics while playing' feature?? On all platforms?

 

[PSeg90]

I was able to use this feature yesterday and loved it so much that I used it again today! Yesterday, I had my Alexa start playing a playlist, then I grabbed my husband's phone, scanned the code from my phone to connect him to the session. I did have to turn his phone's volume all the way down so the only audio would come from the Alexa, but by doing this, we were both able to control the music from our individual phones. Would also be convenient on road trips and silent discos.
But today, I was listening to a podcast and suddenly the podcaster said the name of my city. It had me interested, so I texted a screenshot of "Session Code" to my husband and when he joined, we were able to listen to the same part of the podcast at the same time, but from different locations.