Spotify’s music streaming service is known for its user-friendly interface, extensive music library, exclusive podcast and audiobook collections, and personalized song recommendations. It is available as a web app and downloadable application. The service works on nearly every device, including phones and smart speakers.
Spotify suggests music, playlists, and artists based on your listening history. However, you may want to hide your activity from Spotify’s algorithm and your followers. You can use a Spotify Private session to go incognito if you don’t want your friends to know you listen to controversial podcasts or mess up your Spotify Wrapped playlist. This guide shows you how to turn on Private session on Spotify.
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What is a Spotify Private session?
Activating a Spotify Private session hides your listening activity, and Spotify’s algorithm doesn’t register it. You can play music discreetly without worrying about what your friends may think since followers cannot see what you listen to. The Friend Activity section on the desktop app doesn’t show what you play during a Private session.
Spotify’s algorithm doesn’t include the content you consume during a Private session. It doesn’t appear in your Daily Mixes, Discover Weekly, Made for you, and Spotify Wrapped playlists.
Friend activity is only available on the Spotify app on the desktop.
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How to turn on a Private session on Spotify
You can activate a Private session on mobile or desktop apps to hide your listening activity from your followers and Spotify. The session ends automatically after six hours of inactivity.
Turning on a Spotify Private session on mobile
The following steps work on Android and iOS. We use an Android phone for the screenshots, but the steps are similar for iPhone users.
- Launch the Spotify app on your phone.
- Tap Home.
- Tap your profile picture at the top.
- Choose Settings and privacy.
- Select Privacy and social.
- Turn on the Private session toggle.
Turning on Private session on the Spotify desktop app
- Open the Spotify app on your desktop.
- Click your profile picture.
- Click Private session.
- A blue padlock icon beside your profile picture indicates the Private session is active.
You can’t activate a Private session on the Spotify web player. However, changes you make on the desktop app apply to the web player and other devices where you’re signed in.
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Analyze your listening habits with Spotify
Activating Private session hides your listening activity from followers and Spotify’s algorithm. You can turn it off when you want better music recommendations. When you only want to hide your recently played music from followers, make changes in the app’s Settings section. Spotify picks up your activity and makes suggestions based on it.
If you want to analyze your music preference with personalized statistics, checking out your Spotify Wrapped playlist is a great way to end the year. You can share the list with friends and compare listening stats like your top five songs, the most-listened-to artist of the year, and the top five podcasts. If you want a more in-depth analysis of your musical taste, try out some of the best alternative platforms to keep track of your listening trends.
