- Snapchat users can now share on the platform what they're listening to on Spotify.
- With the new integration, taking a song, playlist, artist, or album from Spotify will turn it into a widget on Snapchat that is clickable and easy to share.
- Here's how you can use the newest integration to share your favorite music with your Snapchat friends, add a soundtrack to the Snaps you send, and listen to the music that your friends post.
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Snapchat has finally added Spotify into its platform, playing catch-up more than a year after Instagram added a feature making it even easier to share music from the streaming giant.
Since the beginning of September, Snapchat has been rolling out a new integration onto its platform that makes it easier to share with friends the songs, playlists, or podcasts you've been listening to. Music is a key player in the world of social media — just look at the popularity of streaming services and music-based apps like TikTok — and Snapchat has finally taken some notice.
Instagram integrated music into Stories — which ironically, it copied from Snapchat— well over a year ago, and users have taken advantage of it to share their favorite songs or what track symbolizes their current mood. With Snapchat, the new Spotify integration works with not only songs, but playlists, podcasts, artists, and albums.
Here's how to use the Spotify widget to share what you're listening to with your friends on Snapchat:
SEE ALSO: Instagram has created an app for instant messaging with people on your Close Friends list in an attempt to best Snapchat
The process of adding a song from Spotify to your Snapchat is incredibly simple once you know what you're doing. If you click on the three dots in the top-right corner of what you're listening to ...
... One of the listed options, beyond adding the song to a playlist or your queue, is to share your content. You may have used this in the past to send a friend a song via text message or WhatsApp.
But this list of options for sharing music also includes Snapchat. Snapchat has long been an option appearing this menu, but it previously would just open Snapchat and try to plug a URL onto the screen. That's great and all, but Snapchat, by design, is a visual-first app.
Now when you choose to share to Snapchat from Spotify, the content you're listening to turns into an aesthetically appealing widget. It's easy to see the name of the song and the artist, as well as the song's accompanying art to make for a more visibly entertaining experience.
The process for adding something that's not a single song or podcast episode is also relatively simple. Again, by clicking on the three dots in the top-right corner ...
... then clicking on "share", then Snapchat ...
... it's easy to share a playlist with certain Snapchat friends or publicize your most recent compilation on your Story.
However nice the Spotify widget is in Snapchat, it's not necessary — you can also add a link to Spotify on an existing photo or video. So, to add a link to this song from Halsey to accompany my Snapchat of the new music video, I'll click on the paper clip icon.
Clicking the paper clip icon will pull up this page, where you could theoretically add any URL to link to in your Snapchat. But fortunately, this URL field also works like a Google search where you can search for any query.
To easily find the link to the song you want on Spotify, it's as easy as typing in the song and artist, just as you would in a traditional Google search. Clicking on the second search result, which is a link to the song ...
... will pull up the song. All you have to do is press "attach to Snap" on the bottom to add the link to your Snap.
You'll know that the attachment is successful when the paper clip icon has a white background, signaling there's a URL attached to the photo. You can then send your creation to Snapchat friends or post on your Story.
On the other side, accessing a song or playlist on Spotify that your friend has shared may not be entirely obvious at first. In order to listen to the content in your friend's Snap or Story, swipe upwards (you'll see an arrow appear on the bottom).
The action will automatically trigger Snapchat to open Spotify. So as long as you have both apps downloaded on your phone, you should only have to click "open app" to switch over ...
... and the linked content, whether it's a song or playlist or podcast, will automatically start playing inside Spotify. This Snapchat-Spotify integration may not seem like much, but it takes out those unnecessary, extra steps of toggling between the apps.