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How To

How to Hide Your Spotify Listening Activity

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To stop followers from seeing what you play on Spotify, turn off Listening activity. For a temporary, account-wide pause, enable Private Session; Spotify says it lasts until you turn it off, the app restarts, or six hours pass.

Choose the right privacy control

Control Best for What it changes Duration
Listening activity Ongoing privacy Stops sharing your activity through Spotify’s social activity controls Until you switch it back on
Private Session A temporary pause Hides the session from Friends Activity, prevents recently played artists from updating, and pauses recommendation personalization and Wrapped inclusion for that listening Ends after six hours, when Spotify restarts, or when you turn it off
Who can see your activity Selective sharing Limits activity visibility to followers or selected friends where the control is available Until you change the audience

Spotify documents these as separate controls. Hiding listening activity does not automatically hide public playlists, remove followers, or change every profile-visibility setting. See Spotify’s Privacy and social controls page for those additional options.

Hide listening activity on a phone or tablet

  1. Open Spotify and tap your profile picture.
  2. Tap Settings and privacy.
  3. Open Privacy and social.
  4. Turn Listening activity off for an ongoing setting, or turn on Private Session for temporary privacy.

Spotify’s labels can vary slightly by app version. The account-level setting applies across your Spotify devices, including connected TVs and speakers, according to Spotify Support.

Hide listening activity on desktop

  1. Click your profile picture.
  2. Choose Settings.
  3. Find the Social or Listening Activity and insights section.
  4. Switch Listening activity off, or open the profile menu and select Private session for a temporary pause.

The exact heading may differ between Spotify desktop releases. Spotify’s instructions are available in its Listening Activity help article.

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Use Private Session when you only need short-term privacy

Spotify describes Private Session as listening privately without sharing your listening activity. While it is active:

  • Your listening does not appear in Friends Activity.
  • Recently played artists do not update on your profile.
  • Spotify does not use that listening to personalize recommendations.
  • That listening is not included in Wrapped.

Private Session is an account-level setting, so enabling it on one device applies to the other devices signed in to the same account. Spotify says it automatically ends after six hours or when the app is restarted; you can also switch it off manually. Details are in How to enable private listening.

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Limit visibility to selected people

If you want some friends to see your activity but not everyone, look for Who can see your activity in Spotify’s privacy settings. Spotify documents options to turn activity off for followers or selected friends; some friend-selection controls may require the mobile app. Chat or group-message visibility has separate controls in chat settings.

What these settings do not erase

Listening Activity and Private Session control social sharing and the specific profile and recommendation behavior Spotify describes. They do not claim to erase your account history or remove information that another person has already seen. If a friend’s feed appears unchanged immediately, remember that Spotify says Listening Activity may not update in real time.

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If Spotify still shows your activity

  1. Confirm that Listening activity is off or that Private Session is currently enabled.
  2. Check the setting again after switching accounts or devices; the relevant controls are account-level.
  3. Update Spotify and your device’s operating system.
  4. Restart Spotify, then log out and back in.
  5. If the problem continues, reinstall Spotify.

These are Spotify’s suggested troubleshooting steps for stale Listening Activity updates. Defaults can also differ by age: Spotify says some sharing controls are on by default for adults aged 18 and older and off for users under 18. Spotify advises users under 18 to consult a guardian before changing privacy settings.

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