You're deep in a late-night rabbit hole. Maybe it's an ex’s profile, a coworker with surprisingly good taste in 90s shoegaze, or that one person from high school who somehow has 40,000 monthly listeners now. You click their profile. You hover over their "Recently Played." Then, the panic hits. Can people see when you view their Spotify?
The short answer? No.
Spotify isn't LinkedIn. It doesn't send a notification saying "Hey, Sarah just looked at your 'Crying in the Rain' playlist for the third time today." There is no "Profile Visitors" tab. You can breathe. But—and this is a big "but"—Spotify is a social platform by design. While they don't have a direct "view" tracker, there are plenty of digital breadcrumbs that might give you away if you aren't careful.
People obsess over this because we've been conditioned by apps like TikTok and Instagram (with their story views) to assume everything is tracked. On Spotify, privacy works differently. It’s more about what you interact with rather than what you just look at.
The mechanics of Spotify’s "Friend Activity"
If you’re on the desktop app, you’ve seen that sidebar on the right. It’s the "Friend Activity" feed. This is the primary way people "see" what others are doing. If you follow someone and they follow you back, your current jam shows up there in real-time.
It shows the song. It shows the artist. It even shows the playlist you're listening from.
If you stumble onto someone’s profile and accidentally start playing their "Gym Motivation" mix, and they happen to be looking at their desktop app at that exact second? Yeah, they’ll see your name pop up. They won't see that you viewed their profile, but they’ll see you’re currently listening to their specific curation. It's a subtle distinction, but a massive one if you're trying to stay under the radar.
Why the mobile app feels safer
Interestingly, the mobile app doesn't show the Friend Activity feed. This leads to a lot of confusion. Users on iPhone or Android often feel like they’re in a vacuum. You’re not. Just because you can't see what your friends are listening to on your phone doesn't mean your desktop-using friends can't see you.
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Can people see when you view their Spotify playlists?
Let’s talk about the playlist paradox. When you click a playlist, you’re invisible. When you follow a playlist, you become a statistic.
Spotify used to be way more transparent about this. Years ago, you could see a full list of every individual user who followed a specific playlist. It was a stalker’s paradise. Spotify eventually realized this was a bit much and nuked the feature. Now, if you have a public playlist, you can see the number of followers, but usually not the names.
However, there’s a workaround. If someone follows your profile, they appear in your "Followers" list. If they just follow a playlist, they're often anonymous. But here's the kicker: if you have a very small, niche playlist with only two followers, and a new person follows it, it’s not exactly hard for a user to cross-reference their new profile followers with that count.
Collaborative playlists are the exception
If you want to stay anonymous, stay away from collaborative playlists. These are designed for transparency.
Every time you add a song, your profile picture appears next to it. Every time you delete something, there's a record. In these specific shared spaces, the "can people see when you view their Spotify" question becomes irrelevant because you are actively participating in a shared document. It’s like a Google Doc for music.
How to go "Ghost Mode" (Private Sessions)
If you’re worried about being seen, you need to use the Private Session feature. It’s the "Incognito Mode" of music.
- Go to your Settings.
- Find the Social section.
- Toggle on Private Session.
Once this is on, your listening activity is scrubbed from the Friend Activity feed. It also stops your current listening habits from influencing your "Made For You" algorithms, which is great if you're about to listen to a 10-hour loop of white noise or a podcast you're embarrassed about.
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A Private Session ends automatically after six hours of inactivity. It's not a permanent "off" switch. You have to keep toggling it if you're a long-term lurker.
The "Recently Played" trap on your profile
By default, Spotify likes to show your "Recently Played Artists" on your public profile. This is different from the live feed. This is a static list of the stuff you've been hammering lately.
If you’ve been binge-listening to a specific person's public playlists or a very specific niche genre they recommended, it might show up here. If they visit your profile, they might see their influence reflected in your top artists.
To hide this, go to Settings > Social and turn off "Show my recently played artists on my public profile."
Do artists know you're listening?
If you're wondering if a specific musician can see you, the answer is no—but they see the data.
Through the "Spotify for Artists" dashboard, creators get incredibly granular data. They see which cities their listeners are in. They see the age range. They see which other artists those fans like. But they do not see "John Smith from Ohio listened to my track 40 times today."
Artists see you as a "listener" or a "stream," not a person. You are a data point in their journey toward a higher royalty check (or, more realistically, a fraction of a cent).
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Misconceptions about Spotify notifications
There are a lot of rumors floating around TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) about new updates that supposedly notify people of profile views.
Most of these are fake.
They’re usually "engagement bait" posts designed to make people panic and comment. As of early 2026, Spotify has not implemented a profile view notification system. They’ve historically leaned away from "hard" social features like DMing or view-tracking in favor of "soft" social features like Spotify Wrapped and Jam sessions.
Practical steps for total privacy
If you want to ensure the answer to "can people see when you view their Spotify" remains a definitive "no" for your specific account, do this:
- Make your playlists private. Right-click any playlist and select "Make Private." This prevents them from appearing on your profile.
- Disable "Publish my listening activity on Spotify." This is the master switch in Social settings that kills the Friend Activity feed for good.
- Block users. If there’s one specific person you don’t want seeing anything you do, block them. They won't be able to see your profile, your public playlists, or your listening activity. It’s the nuclear option, but it works.
- Check your connected apps. Sometimes third-party apps (like Last.fm or receipt-generation sites) display your data more publicly than Spotify does. Check what you've given permission to in your account settings on the Spotify website.
Ultimately, Spotify is a one-way street when it comes to browsing. You can look at profiles and public playlists all day without ever leaving a footprint, provided you don't hit "play" while your social sharing is turned on. It's a library, not a fishbowl. Keep your social settings tightened, and your late-night music deep dives will remain your business alone.
Next Steps for Your Privacy:
Navigate to your Spotify Settings > Social right now. Check if "Share my listening activity" is toggled on. If it is, and you didn't know it, your followers have been seeing your music choices in real-time. Toggle it off if you want to keep your habits to yourself.