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Spotify is a massive platform designed not only for listening to music, but also audiobooks and podcasts covering a range of subjects. The platform has continued to grow, and as the years go on, the development team has come up with more creative ways for users to enjoy the application, while also giving them more flexibility in what they see and hear through it. The development team does not rest as they have already added a handful of notable features, including the addition of lossless audio, added in 2025. And there are more exciting changes being applied to the app for 2026.

We're going to go through and highlight some of the best features that you can use right now in 2026. We can expect even more on the way for everyone, including Basic and Premium users. This list covers 9 of the best features added to Spotify in 2026 (so far).

A notable Spotify feature added in 2026 is called Listening Activity. Listening Activity is an opt-in feature that lets you display what music you're playing in the Messages system in real time, or show the most recently played song you were listening to. It's only visible to friends and family who are already connected with you on Messages, and you can see what others have displayed in this format. Those who click on a user's profile with this feature can see the song, react to it, and add it to their own playlist. 

It's a reliable way to keep adding music to your growing playlist, or to check out what others on your friends' list are listening to whenever they're enjoying music throughout the day. For those who are constantly on the search for new music, it's a fun way to try something new, knowing your friends are listening to it. It's like getting a personal recommendation from them, and it may even spark a conversation between the two of you later on if you share how much you like it. You might be able to get more recommendations from your friend, or have some of your own to share with them. Messages may not have been the feature Spotify users wanted, but the team continues to add more to it and make it a worthwhile choice from other messaging options.

Another feature added to Messages is the Request to Jam. You can do this through the Messages tool, where anyone on your friend's list can send a request to jam together, allowing both parties to share and listen to the same playlist. You can do this at any time with another user, so long as the two of you are sharing. What's even better is that you don't have to be close to them, which means the two of you could be enjoying the workday in different parts of the world and then start sharing music.

Both users have to agree to start listening together, and then the application takes over from there. You'll be able to do everything through the Messages feature, where you can talk and coordinate on what you want to listen to next, or try a different playlist together. You'll be able to see the entire queue, so you know what to expect, and continue to add on to it as you share the jam session. This feature is restricted to Premium users on Spotify, though a Premium user can host for someone with a free membership.

Another new feature you might notice as a Spotify user is the Taste Profile. It's an ideal format for anyone who regularly explores their homepage to find new recommendations. The Taste Profile allows the Spotify application to curate your homepage to reflect your recent music, audiobook, and podcast choices. If you listen more to a specific genre, expect to see more of it on your homepage. You can also flag certain playlists if they don't align with what you want to listen to, similar to the Discover Weekly and Smart Filter functionality already added by the Spotify team.  

Taste Profile also goes further by choosing music based on your habits and interests, such as preparing a playlist for when you're working out, training for a marathon, or podcasts that you can listen to during a long weekday commute. It might not get everything correct, though. If there's something that doesn't quite fit you, you can flag certain recommendations, thereby ensuring you'll get fewer of that specific genre in the future. You can also highlight the things the Taste Profile does get correct, and you'll be able to get more of that moving forward.

What's nice is that the feature is completely passive for all users, meaning you can choose how much you interact with it. The more you do, the more you get out of it, but if you don't, you'll still be able to continue using Spotify as much as you like with no changes.

Spotify wants to make it easier for users to know they can trust certain artists, especially those concerned about who is playing what on their playlists, and you're supporting real people. To make it easier to see, the Verified Badge has arrived on Spotify. The Verified Badge allows users to tell if Spotify has verified a specific artist playing on the platform. The checkmark is a visual signal that those running the application have reviewed an artist to provide users with more protection and transparency regarding the music they make.

Artists with this badge have consistent viewers, good standing on Spotify, and are, in fact, the real artists they claim to be on their profiles. The badge will look like a small light green checkmark icon, and it should say, "Verified by Spotify," if you hover over it. If an artist doesn't have one on their profile yet, don't fret. It's a feature that's steadily rolling out to the platform, but the development team has prioritized those with a larger fanbase. Artists who are starting and beginning to operate on there might not get it immediately, but as they garner more followers and a larger fanbase, they'll also get it sometime later

This feature is more for artists appearing on Spotify than it is for users listening to music, but it's a way for both to benefit in the long run, and it's called Artist Profile Protection. It's a way to bring more protection for artists who regularly use Spotify to share their music. The feature makes it easier for artists to protect the work they post on the platform by curating what appears on their page, as the song goes through a review process before it goes live. It's a behind-the-scenes feature that users won't see as often, but everyone wins when artists are better protected and feel confident in what they're posting, knowing it won't be taken or used by another party.

The hope with the Artist Profile Protection feature is to ensure bad actors can't exploit any songs posted to a profile. There's a chance that a page that wasn't created by an artist might appear on their profile, either because someone is deliberately doing it, because they share the same name, or a metadata mix-up that confuses the system. The hope is to give fans more confidence when they review an artist's profile, and for the artist to know everything that appears on their profile for fans to enjoy.

Many songs feature videos alongside the music that's being played. For those listening on their phones or computers, the video might appear while the song is playing. It can be rather disruptive and data-intensive for those who regularly use Spotify on their smartphones. As a way to make it less of a problem for users who don't want to use it as much, Spotify has created new video controls. These new video controls let you switch between Canvas looping visuals, the music video for a song, or turn a podcast's visuals on or off. These apply across mobile, desktop, web, TV, and any other location you may use Spotify, potentially limiting how much data the platform uses.

The new controls are available for all premium and basic users who want to control these video settings. The settings are also available for videos or looping visuals that appear on podcasts and audiobooks on the platform. For those who want to do away with it entirely, there's also the option to stop those from appearing at all, so you can focus on the music and don't have to worry about Spotify eating up more of your precious phone data.

It can be fun to have someone or something create a special playlist for you. Rather than having a friend do it, Spotify has added the Prompted Playlist feature, where you can try to get something brand new, just for you.  The Prompted Playlist allows you to type in a prompt for a generator to describe what type of playlist you want to hear. Based on what you type, a randomized playlist comes out, from mood-boosting indie-pop to warm acoustic songs for a Sunday morning. It all comes down to what you want to describe to the generator, which means the more personality and specifics you put into it, the more types of music that fit you and that mood comes out.

After you type in the prompt for what you'd like, the program goes through your entire Spotify listening history and creates one that fits what you're looking for. You'll get a mix of songs that are favorites from various playlists you've created from your go-to artists, along with new songs from artists you may not have heard before. It can be a new way to learn about new artists on the platform, rather than waiting for them to appear on your playlist when you have the Smart Shuffle feature on, or if you rely on the hidden Spotify features that all users can use to curate their playlist.

Getting a workout in at least once a day can be challenging, and Spotify wants to make it easier with the Fitness with Spotify feature. It's a series of guided workouts that bridges fitness and music. Both Basic and Premium users have access to multiple curated playlists created by wellness creators in partnership with Peloton, who developed 1,400 ad-free on-demand fitness classes. These range from on-demand outdoor runs to mat classes that offer strength, cardio, yoga, or meditation-focused exercises.

How you get it to work is by opening the Spotify application from your smartphone, desktop, or television, typing in "fitness" in the search bar, or opening the Fitness hub portion of the application, and beginning browsing. You'll be able to check out any of the classes or curated playlists that appear on the page, sorted by the type of workout or activity you want to do. A majority of these are in English, but a handful are also available in Spanish or German. After you find one you like, you can always download it and use it later if you'd like, even when you're offline. You can also start a fitness class or playlist from one Spotify application, pause it, and then jump to another.

Another feature users are likely to notice is how they see and interact with advertisements on the music platform. Spotify is making it easier for brands to present their products to users through unique tools such as Sponsored Playlists and Carousel Ads. Sponsored Playlists are a simple way for a brand to appear in a playlist without becoming an intrusive presence that interrupts a user's song. For Carousel, Brands can choose up to six different cards that appear in Spotify's Now Playing View, showing on screen while someone is listening to a song. Both are less intrusive ways for brands and products to appear on Spotify, while also giving users more time with their songs, similar to Spotify's Smart Reorder feature, something Apple Music users likely wish they could use.

It's a good method for brands seeking different ways to present their products, without completely overwhelming users while listening to music. It's a good way to make sure it doesn't completely uproot a playlist. Alongside these additions, brands have more data to glean about how users interact with these advertisements and can directly see what does well and what doesn't. It gives brands the ability to directly choose which advertisements go out more often, especially those that users are more likely to see and engage with.