What happens when I follow a friend?

[carlyg-123]

If I follow someone I know on spotify, will he get a notification? 

Will I see what he's playing, in my friend feed, if he has his activity hidden?

[detective889]

Hey! 

If you follow a friend they do not get a notification anymore as the notification bell has been removed from the client. 

You will see what your friend is playing as long as his listening habits are public and you have the Friend Feed open on the right side of your client. If he has his activity hidden no one, even his friends, can see his activity - it's private. 

Hope that helps!

[carlyg-123]

Thank you so much for replying! I've been puzzling over this for ages. Someone on twitter said I'd still see his activity? Naturally, now that confuses me. What's the use of following someone if their activity is hidden? 

How would I know if he had hidden his activity? If his "recently listened to" isn't visible, does that mean it's hidden? 

How would someone hide their list of followers? 

Does that mean that the only way he would know I was following him would be to check his follower list? 

(Sorry for the 20Q, I'm anxious to follow someone but I want to understand what I'm doing beforehand, and understand how that may or may not appear)

[MartinStoichkov]

Hello @carlyg-123! 

Let's make things clear for you

Users can activate their private session (click on the arrow next to your username in the right corner > Private Session) 

The Private Session last until you restart Spotify or for long period of inactivity.

"Anyone who follows you on Spotify can see what you’re listening to in real time, unless you turn on a Private Session."

For more info check here 

Users can't hide their followers, that means they are public and everyone can see them. 

If the "Recently Played Artists" tab is not visible, that means it's hidden yes. 

For now, the only way to see your followers is to go to your profile and check the Followers tab yes. 

Hope that clear things up, if you have more questions, reply back here : )

[detective889]

Thanks for the help! Think some info got list in translation on mine 🙂 

[carlyg-123]

If the recently played artists isn't visible, does that mean nothing will be visible in the friend feed? And if so, what's the purpose of following someone? 

I can't see his followers? He had some, but now it looks like this: (I've attached an image, no sure how it will appear) 

[MartinStoichkov]

Hey again! 

The main purpose of following someone is to check their music in the Friend Activity panel and listen to their playlists. The "Recently Played Artist" is a different option, so it does not take an effect of their Listening Activity.

Of course, the Private Session and Recently Played Artists are up to the users, and it's only their choice if they want to hide or display them.

I don't know why it does not displaying the followers tab, but it's maybe a bug, try to log out and log back in Spotify and see if there's any difference. If not change, please send me the profile to your friend to check from my end and then I can assist you further. Thanks! : )

[carlyg-123]

Does that mean that hiding the Recently Played Artist will have no bearing upon what's seen in the friend feed?

How far back does the friend feed go? I created a test account, and followed myself - it showed one song from 14hours ago. I followed someone else, and it just listed him as "other friends", without displaying anything in the friend feed. Why might this be? 

(I know I'm asking the same question, pretty much, I just want to make sure I'm 100% confident in what I'm doing/what to expect)

[MartinStoichkov]

Hey back! 

You're not doing anything wrong. If you follow someone, who have low activity in Spotify, eg: they didn't listened from week or month in Spotify, then you see them at the bottom of the list. 

Did you listen on the same device, or on another with your other account? If you listen on other devices, make sure they're not in Offline Mode (if you have Premium account). 

Usually, the Friend Feed is refreshing from 1-3 minutes delay. 

In other words, if you follow someone who is active in Spotify, you'll see them in your Friend Activity. 

If you have other problems with the Friend Feed, you can submit a screenshot, too see what happening. 

• If you want to be 100% sure that all is working smoothly, you can make a clean reinstall of Spotify. : )

[HaroldFK40]

Can a friend still view my activity, even though i have unfollowed them ?

[AdamDam]

Hi HaroldFK40, the answer to your question depends on whether or not your friend is following you; if they are following you, then they can see your listening activity (using the Friend Activity sidebar), and if not, then they cannot see your listening activity. Unfollowing a friend does not influence their ability to see your listening activity.

[chelseakde]

Hi I accidentally followed someone for five minutes and then when I realized I immediately unfollowed them.

This reply was made in 2017 but I still want to make sure that it holds up -- from what you're saying unless the person was literally looking at their follower list, there's no way they could've known that I accidentally followed them for a bit right?

[Petya]

Hi there @carlyg-123 and @chelseakde,

Thanks for posting your question here!

At the time being Spotify does not shoot notifications when someone follows your account or playlist. And vice versa. Hope this helps 🙂 

Have a great day!

[LaraJ]

Hi! I also have a few questions about followers and visibility 🙂

I get that if I turn on a private session, my followers will not see what I am listening to. However, if I didn't use private sessions before and someone new follows me now, can they see what I have listened to before they followed me? 

Also, if someone sends me their playlist, do they see my account name when I listen to their music without following the playlist? And do they see my name when I follow the playlist?

Thank you in advance!! 

[Dian]

Hey @LaraJ,

Thanks for the questions.

The listening history is not visible to the people, who follow your Spotify account. Only the current listening activity, one song at a time, is visible and this starts after the person has followed your account. So the last song you've listened to before the person has started following your account, will not be visible.

If you listen to someone's playlist, the name of the playlist will be visible under the name of the current song you're listening. The person following your account will be seeing your profile picture and next to it your display name, the name of the song and the name of the playlist, from which the song is being played, under it, if the playlist is public. If the playlist is not public, the album of the song will be displayed instead.

Your name will not be visible for the owner of a playlist, if you follow it. The owner will only see the number of followers of the playlist displayed as "likes".

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

[urdadsfavy]

So im wondering if my current listening activity is visible to someone who uses Spotify on a playstation 4. And if so, is it by default? Or would they have to intentionally change that setting.. 

[AdamDam]

Hi @urdadsfavy,

Thanks for posting in the Spotify Community, and welcome!

The Friend Activity feature from the Spotify desktop app isn’t available on a PS4. However, if you also have your Spotify account linked to your PlayStation Network account, the song that you last listened to on Spotify will be visible on the friend’s PS4 (similarly to how Discord works).

Let me know if you have any other questions, and have a good day!

[artisvida]

Hi, not sure if this is the right place to ask, but what happens when I follow someone here in the community (not on their Spotify profile). Are these 2 systems connected? Do I see the same activity? What's the difference? 

Thanks! 🙂 

[OscarDC]

Hey @artisvida,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for joining the conversation.

Following someone on the Community page it's separate from the follow you made on the Spotify app. When you follow someone in the Community, you will be able to receive notifications about their posts, comments in threads and likes on the Community page, but it will not appear followed on your app.

On the Spotify app, following a friend will just show you their listening activity (if they have the option activated) on the Friend feed, but it will not be related to the follow on the Community page.

Hope this clarifies things. If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[artisvida]

Thanks Oscar! 😊