Spotify is testing local Group Sessions, auto-refresh for playlists, saving podcast episodes, 30-minute offline listening for free users, and more

Spotify, the music streaming platform used by nearly 300 million people globally, is currently testing a string of new features that could be announced soon. These include an expansion to the Group Sessions feature for local networks, auto-refresh for playlists, the ability to save podcast episodes, 30-minute offline listening for free users, and more.

Reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, who is famous for hacking applications and software to find new features being developed by technology companies, made these discoveries and took to Twitter to share several screenshots of some of the exciting functionalities and enhancements that Spotify has been working on.

One of the biggest changes that could be coming to the music streaming service is the ability for free users to listen to music offline for 30 minutes daily. Currently, offline streaming is reserved for paying subscribers, while users with a free subscription can only use the platform if they have an Internet connection. But if this change comes to fruition, they’ll be able to stream music for half an hour each day without a mobile or Wi-Fi connection.

Spotify is working on letting free users play offline for 30 minutes every day pic.twitter.com/q9Vn3tQOKD

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 5, 2020

If you use Spotify for listening to podcasts, you’re in luck as Spotify is developing a feature called “Your Episodes”. Using this, you’ll be able to save specific episodes of your favorite podcasts to listen to again or when you have time to catch up on them. Another neat functionality is “auto-refresh” for playlists, which users would be able to enable if they want their playlists to refresh and new songs to be added automatically.

Spotify is working on “Your Episodes” for saving your favorite podcast episodes pic.twitter.com/Zv0xgOA8Ev

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 5, 2020

Spotify is working on “Auto-refresh” for playlists,

noting when enabled, the playlist will automatically refresh w/ new songs pic.twitter.com/n9LoLWBPbo

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 5, 2020

Spotify has a new homepage for its car mode in the pipeline, too. Jane wrote on Twitter that this will include “larger grids of recommended playlists, a banner telling users they can control Spotify via Google Assistant, [and] a redesigned navigation bar for Car Mode.” Finally, she also showed off a new player UI for Spotify Car Mode, and it looks great.

Spotify is working on a new Car Mode home page where it shows:

1. larger grids of recommended playlists

2. a banner telling users they can control Spotify via Google Assistant

3. a redesigned navigation bar for Car Mode (not exactly new but still) pic.twitter.com/Bmqhq0vUWj

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 5, 2020

Spotify is working on a new player UI for Car Mode pic.twitter.com/8Fy4bvud8J

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 5, 2020

The new features have yet to be confirmed by Spotify, so it’s worth pointing out that they won’t necessarily appear in the next stable version of the streaming service. Jane discovers new features days, weeks, months, or even close to a year before their public launch, so there’s no telling when these features will go live.

Spotify: Listen to new music, podcasts, and songs (Free, Google Play) →

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