Now You Can Communicate With Spotify (and You Might Actually Want To).
We’ve firmly entered the era of artificial intelligence, and chatbots and personal assistants are all the rage. Soon, iPhone users who meet certain requirements will have the opportunity to experience the AI-powered Siri . Meanwhile, ChatGPT is available to answer your questions even while driving . It’s increasingly becoming nearly impossible to use modern technology without being invited to interact with AI. For example, you can now “talk” to Spotify. At first glance, this seemed a bit odd, but it could actually be useful—especially for users who want to know everything about their listening history.
How does Spotify work?
On Tuesday, Spotify announced a new update that lets you communicate directly with the app via text or voice commands. The idea isn’t to use Spotify as a conversation partner; rather, Spotify wants you to tell the app what you want to listen to. For example, you can ask, “Play artists I haven’t heard before” or “Play a mix of my favorite artist’s hits.” You can also combine requests. If you say, “Add Bad Bunny,” you can add something like “only the newest hits” or “make the music calmer.”
You can also ask Spotify to provide you with more information about the music currently playing in the Now Playing window. You can ask general questions, like “When was this album released?” or “What genre is this song?” as well as more specific ones. Spotify suggests, “What inspired Dua Lipa to make her album Radical Optimism ?” This also applies to podcasts and audiobooks—you can also ask, for example, “What other books has [author] written?” or “Show me other podcasts this person has appeared on.”
Most of these questions can be answered with a quick Google search, but perhaps the most interesting feature is personalization. Spotify claims you can ask questions about your listening history: “When did I first listen to this song?” or “What genres of music have I been listening to lately?” If you’re curious about your Spotify stats—and the annual Spotify Wrapped contest certainly does—this could be a fun way to gain insight before the end of the year.
Of course, this isn’t Spotify’s first feature to use artificial intelligence. The app previously launched a tool that uses AI to provide more detailed information about your music , without requiring you to ask. You can also create AI-powered playlists , just like in other music apps ( including now Apple Music ).
How to try to contact Spotify
While this feature is currently being rolled out, it won’t be available to all Spotify users. The company states that only “eligible Premium users” will be able to interact directly with Spotify on the homepage and in the “Now Playing” section of the mobile app. At launch, this will include users in the US, Ireland, and Sweden. Spotify also emphasizes that the feature is currently in beta, meaning that even if it arrives on your device soon, initial results may be mixed.