I feel like there are too many ways to message people—or for people to message me. iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp Instagram DMs, Signal, Telegram—the list goes on, and with it, the list of apps I need to keep track of to stay in touch with friends and family. Now, apparently, it’s time to add Spotify to that list.
It’s true: Spotify is getting DMs. The company announced the feature—dubbed, appropriately, “Messages”—in a blog post on Tuesday. Spotify’s “Messages” work just like any other in-app messaging platform. Once it’s available on your account, you’ll find the tab by tapping your profile in the top left, or swiping right on the home screen. You’ll see all existing messages threads, with unread conversations sorted at the top, as well as the option to start a new message at the bottom.
While you can text your friends anything you like, including emojis, the main purpose of Spotify DMs is for sharing Spotify content, like music, audiobooks, and podcasts. As you might expect, sharing within the app is straightforward: You tap the share button on a piece of content you’re listening to, then choose the name of a friend to DM it to. As usual, Spotify lets you adjust the color or style of the album art before sending, if you want to have a little fun with it.
Credit: Spotify
The feature isn’t a Premium-exclusive, either: All Spotify users who are at least 16 years old can access DMs, which is a neat perk. This seems like the type of option many companies would offer to paying subscribers only, though I suppose that would defeat the purpose of making it easy to share Spotify content with Spotify users, many of whom don’t pay.
As for privacy and security, the initial report is mixed: Spotify says it uses “industry-standard encryption in transit and at rest,” so that your messages are encrypted both when stored on your device and when sending to other Spotify users. That said, the company uses “proactive detection technology” to scan messages for “unlawful and harmful content.” Anything that is reported, both by users as well as through this system, will be reviewed by moderators. Noble as that may be, to me, this isn’t the platform for privacy-minded individuals who want to ensure their messages cannot be tracked by tech companies.
