Tune in with your friends: Spotify beta testing 'Group Sessions' feature to let up to 5 users listen to music, podcasts together

Spotify has tweaked its popular audio-streaming app to accommodate the demands of the post-pandemic world. Its latest addition, the Group Sessions feature, allows up to five users to listen to music, podcasts, or radio together, irrespective of their being in geographically disparate locations.

To make use of this feature, all users will need to be premium subscribers, and the virtual party can be started by going to the Connect menu on the bottom left of the app screen and creating a shareable link. This has to be shared via another service.

Group sessions, which are being beta tested for remote use, can also be accessed by scanning a code using the camera. Discussions about what to play next, and who gets to play the DJ the next time around can be had over Spotify’s social functions.


The host and the guests who’ve signed up for the listening party can all control playback or skip tracks of a playlist or episodes of a podcast. They have the freedom to toggle between items in the queue and also to add more tracks to a playlist.

Since the novelty of the feature is simultaneous listening for a group of people, whenever a new track is added, or if someone skips a song, Spotify said that “it will immediately be reflected on all participating devices.”

This feature is still in beta testing, so Spotify is likely to include user feedback to evolve its social sharing features to better suit listeners. With social distancing becoming the norm, listen-along features could prove to be an interactive way to listen to music with friends without occupying the same physical space.