Spotify – the music streaming app – is publicly testing Snapchat-style stories.
The new feature recently started showing on some users’ phone apps. When you search for certain terms, such as “Christmas Hits,” and tap one of the featured playlists, you’ll get an option to “Tap to see the story,” which will take you a collage of short videos with celebrities talking about their favorite Christmas songs.
Stories! Stories everywhere!
Image: stan schroeder/mashable
Not everyone can see the feature, but I do have it on my iPhone, and it’s essentially a direct copy of Stories as seen on Snapchat and Instagram. You can tap to get to the next part of the story, and you can also report a story, by tapping on the three dots icon in the lower right corner.
I wasn’t able to find a Story on any other playlist aside for Christmas Hits. If you have the feature and want to try finding more, note that the playlist cover photo is bigger on a story-equipped playlist than it is on a regular one.
If you’ve ever used Instagram or Snapchat or Facebook or Twitter, you’ll know how this works.
Image: STAN SCHROEDER/MASHABLE
Stories have been creeping into pretty much every social app in the past couple of years. Most recently, Twitter launched Fleets, which are, again, pretty much the same thing.
The feature is a bit weirder on Spotify, however. The music streaming app has social elements, with publicly shareable playlists and the ability to follow friends, but the service is primarily about listening to music, which is why Stories do feel a bit out of place. Perhaps, as The Next Web suggests, they should take users to song recommendations directly instead of video messages from artists.
There’s no word on when Spotify might launch the new feature widely, but Mashable has reached out and we will update the article when we hear back.
