Skip to main content

Spotify is launching a Messenger bot for sharing song clips with friends



Spotify will be launching a bot for Facebook Messenger users that lets friends discover and share music directly in their chats. The bot, which takes advantage of Facebook’s soon-to-launch chat extensions, includes search tools, music recommendations, and sharing functionality for sending 30-second song clips to friends that can either be listened to within Messenger, or launched in Spotify’s app to hear the song in full.

The announcement of the new bot was published to Spotify’s blog this afternoon, but the post is not publicly available at present. It was likely posted ahead of Facebook’s big announcement at its developer conference F8, where it’s expected to unveil new features for Messenger, including “chat extensions,” which will expand the default Messenger experience with new functionality.

However, we were able to read through the details of Spotify’s post, thanks to the magic of RSS readers. (Google it.)

Explains the company, the Spotify bot will be able to serve up music recommendations based on mood, activity, or genres, or you can search across Spotify’s catalog to share songs, albums and playlists with your friends in your Messenger chat.

Of course, you could already paste Spotify links into Messenger before, which would include a preview of the item in question – like an image thumbnail and song or album title, for example. But with the new Messenger bot, friends will be able to listen to a 30-second clip in chat for the first time, without having to exit to Spotify. (If they want to hear the full song, of course, they’ll still need to visit Spotify.)

The Spotify bot appears to be an expansion on the company’s earlier integration with Messenger, which was more limited. Last year, the company rolled out a Messenger add-on that would launch Spotify for the search and discovery portion, with the option to share the photo of the song, album or playlist with a friend as well as a link that would again launch Spotify when clicked.

The new bot, however, brings the search and discovery features into Messenger itself, instead of being an external experience.

To use the Spotify bot, the blog post says, you’ll tap on the blue plus (“+”) icon to the left of the text box in Messenger, then tap on Spotify to launch the bot. A new window pops up, overlaid on the chat, where you can find the music you want to share.

Thanks to the photo shared along with the blog post, it looks like we’ve got a sneak peek at other Messenger extensions, as well – names like Instacart, OpenTable, Quip and Airbnb are featured here, too.

When the bot officially launches, it will be available at http://m.me/Spotify. Facebook is expected to announce Chat Extensions at F8 around 11 AM PT, so that would be the time to check back as the post implies the bot is going live today in conjunction with Facebook’s news.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Build Your Own Awesome Personal 3D Avatar with Avatara

Do you use social networks and want to build your own awesome 3D avatar? Maybe you want to send someone a cute cuddly image of yourself (kind of)? Or maybe you have your own ideas of what you would do with an Avatar… Well look no further than Avatara which I discovered from the MakeUseOf directory . You can create 3d avatars out of pre-set up templates or create your own from scratch. To start, visit Avatara’s homepage . You will see this screen: Click Get Started to umm, get started! That will take you to this screen: You see that you can build your own Avatar using an uploaded head shot like the Obama one above (just an example, guys). Or roll with one of their awesome avatars. I chose to start with a blank avatar by clicking Start with a blank avatar at the bottom of the screen. That takes you to here: I clicked on the filter at the top and told it to filter out everything but male characters and then I saw this: I rolled with Buck and continued. You need to click Select...
1 comment
Read more

MoviePass drops pricing to under $7 per month, if you opt for the annual plan

MoviePass, the subscription service that lets consumers pay a monthly fee to see unlimited movies in theaters across the U.S., is slashing its prices yet again. The company announced today it’s now offering its service for $6.95 per month, down from the current price of $9.95 per month, when customers commit to a one-year subscription plan. That works out to a flat fee of $89.95 annually. The deal is a limited-time promotion, as opposed to a permanent pricing change, but MoviePass didn’t say how long the offer is valid. However, it is open to both new and existing subscribers – the latter who would receive a 25 percent savings on their current subscription if switching over to the annual plan. This is not the first time that MoviePass has dropped its pricing. When the company introduced its $9.95 per month, one-movie-per-day plan this August, down from $15 for 2 movies per month (or more in select markets like L.A. and NYC, and going as high as $50), it saw so many new sign-up...
2 comments
Read more

ASUS VivoBook X202E Windows 8 Touchscreen Laptop Review And Giveaway

It wasn’t very long ago when prices of touchscreen Windows 8 laptops soared beyond $1000. Thankfully, those days are behind us, and portable computers can easily be purchased – touchscreen and all – for under $500. That’s precisely the demographic in which the ASUS VivoBook X202E falls. When compared to a high-end laptop, its specifications might seem modest, but for laptop buyers just looking for a way to browse the web, watch videos, use basic apps, and not spend too much money, something in this budget is perfectly suitable. The question is, of course, how does the ASUS VivoBook X202E compare to others on the market, and is it the one which you should be spending your hard-earned money on? Well, you’re just going to have to keep reading to find out. Best of all, we are giving away an ASUS VivoBook X202E to one lucky winner. Keep reading for your chance to take home this Windows 8 touchscreen laptop! Introducing the ASUS VivoBook X202E Laptop The ASUS VivoBook X202...
Read more