Followers don't show in friends activity panel

[MoeMcLendon]

I'm baffled by the difference between followers and friends and how that all works. There are number of acquaintances (not artists) whom I follow and who follow me back. None of them appear in my friend activity panel, and don't show up if I "Add Friends". Nor do they show up if I search for them in the search bar and click the Profile tab. How did I ever follow them in the first place? Does their activity show anywhere other than when I click on their profile?

[Maxim]

Hey @MoeMcLendon,

Thanks for reaching out.

It's possible that the don't have the "Share my listening activity on Spotify" setting enabled within the app and it's not enabled by default. You can find some more info about it here.

Lastly, not all profiles appear in the Search results, since it depends on many factors whether or not a profile shows up there (e. g. follower count). It's possible that they don't up when you click on "Add Friends", since you already follow each other.

Let me know if you have any other questions 🙂

[MoeMcLendon]

I do have "share my listening activity" turned on. I didn't ask about my listening activity being shared though.

This answer doesn't really address several of my questions, including 
1) what is the difference between friends and followers/following?
2) where does the activity of people I'm following (not artists) show up?
3) How did I follow the accquaintances I'm following in the first place, since they don't show up in search results?

Also your second answer doesn't make sense. You said that people won't show up in the Add Friends list if we already follow each other. And yet they don't show in the Friend Activity list either. So there's no way to have people I'm mutual followers with show up in my Friend Activity list?

[Maxim]

Hey again, @MoeMcLendon,

It looks like there was some confusion about sharing listening activity.

Just to clarify, it’s your friends who need to enable the setting for it to work. You can check out this post for a detailed guide on what you need to do in order for it to work correctly.

Now, here’s a quick breakdown of how things work:

1. The Facebook integration lets you find your Facebook friends on Spotify. A “friend” in Spotify’s context just means a Spotify user who’s also a Facebook friend. If you’re not following them on Spotify yet, they should show up in the “Find friends” section. It’s easy to get confused, but think of it like Instagram or X/Twitter: you follow certain users, and others follow you—it doesn’t automatically create a friendship.
2. You can view their activity in the “Friend activity” section. More details on how to enable that can be found here.
3. You’ve likely followed them through the “Find friends” feature.

Lastly, keep in mind, they don’t have to follow you back for their activity to show up in your Friend activity feed. For everything to work smoothly, have a look at the post I linked above.

I hope this clears things up. 🙂