The new sidebar chooses to show the profile picture of your friend as opposed to the album, and also does not show the full artist and song title. You essentially have to click on every link to see what each person is listening to. The older sidebar was better.
Thanks
Hello and thanks for your feedback!
A similar idea has also been suggested here:
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Ideas/Desktop-Go-back-to-the-old-friend-feed/idi-p/1035927
Add your kudos and comments there please! 😉