Spotify rolls out a more conversational way to ask, discover, and listen

Spotify is testing a new “talk to Spotify” experience that aims to make listening feel more interactive, letting users ask questions and give instructions without leaving the app. In a new product announcement, the company said eligible Premium subscribers can type or speak in the mobile app to start a back-and-forth conversation that guides music, podcasts, and audiobooks discovery and playback.

The feature is rolling out gradually in beta for Premium users age 18 and older in the United States, Ireland, and Sweden, available on both iOS and Android devices and in English. Spotify said the functionality is designed to appear in mobile views including Home and Now Playing, positioning it as an in-context layer rather than a separate tool.

Spotify’s pitch is that the conversation can range from broad discovery prompts to more specific taste refinements. Users can ask Spotify to “play some artists I haven’t heard before,” then adjust the direction to match their mood. The company’s examples include starting with additional artists and narrowing further, such as adding a specific artist and then requesting only recent work, or asking to make the selection “more upbeat.”

The app is also expected to help users take actions while listening. Spotify said users can give commands like “save this song,” “add this to my queue,” or “follow this artist.” In other words, the conversational interface is meant to connect discovery directly to the common behaviors listeners use to build queues and follow creators.

For context, Spotify said the feature can answer questions about what is currently playing or what a listener is viewing. From Now Playing, the company encouraged users to ask for information such as the inspiration behind a specific song, when an album was released, or what genre an artist’s work fits into. Spotify also said it can respond with related artists, sounds, and stories that deepen discovery of music and the creative process behind it.

The conversational experience extends beyond music into spoken audio. While listening to a podcast or audiobook, Spotify said users can ask questions about the people, stories, and ideas connected to the content. Examples included inquiries about other books written by the author and other podcasts a guest has been on, positioning the feature as a way to learn more while staying in the playback flow.

Spotify also described the system as leveraging existing listening indicates, including playlists, favorite artists, repeat listens, and listening history. Based on that, it said users can ask retrospective questions such as “when did I first listen to this song?” and “what genres have I been into recently?” The company characterized this as a way to explore the “story of your taste,” linking past listening patterns to current discovery.

Company executives did not provide performance metrics or product screenshots in the announcement. Instead, Spotify emphasized that the experience is still under development, noting that it may not always respond perfectly and that user feedback will shape what comes next. That caveat is a key part of the rollout, since conversational features can vary by prompt quality, device, and the precision of the underlying music, podcast, and audiobook metadata.

What to watch next is whether Spotify expands the beta to more regions, languages, and account tiers, and how quickly it improves response accuracy and usefulness based on user feedback. Observers will also likely focus on whether the feature’s “talk to Spotify” behavior stays confined to discovery and context, or expands further into broader personalization and interaction across more parts of the app.