Spotify first introduced the group listening feature in May but at the time, the members of the group needed to be in the same space.
Group Session is only available to Premium members
Spotify's Group Session beta allows users to stream music or podcasts together with friends remotely. It is available for Premium users who can generate sharable links and listen with their friends no matter where they are in real-time. The new feature allows up to five people to listen together at a time. As per Spotify's press release, the feature was implemented on July 28 and allows two to five people to stream together. Further, Spotify desktop app and Web client have finally got standalone Chromecast support.
The company stated that the beta Group Session feature allows Spotify Premium users to generate a shareable link that they can send over any messaging app to invite their friends to the group. Users can also share a scan code with guests. All members of the group will need to be Premium members. Notably, this feature was first implemented in May, but only worked when people were in the same space.
To start a Group Session:
1. Open Spotify and play something
2. Tap on the Connect to a device icon
3. Tap on Start Session under the Start a group Session option
4. Tap on Invite Friends and share the link using the apps listed
5. Or tap on Copy Link to choose a different method of sharing
Additionally, according to the Spotify community forum, the desktop app and Web client have got standalone support for Chromecast. Initially, the desktop app and Web client needed the iOS or Android app to be able to connect to Chromecast, but now they can do it independently.
The option is available on the desktop client but not on the Windows app which means the company is rolling out the feature in stages. We tried it on the Web client and were able to play music through a Google Home speaker.
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