Spotify’s New ‘smart Filters’ Let You Screen Library Content By Activity, Genre Or Mood

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Spotify app screenshot showing smart filtersImage Credits:Spotify

7:50 AM PDT · September 8, 2025

Spotify is giving users much ways to personalize what they hear. The institution is launching a caller characteristic that allows users to select their room by circumstantial activities, moods, aliases genres. These filters tin besides beryllium utilized to find playlists, or, to immoderate extent, audio books and podcasts, and tin moreover footwear disconnected a caller convention connected Spotify’s AI DJ.

The smart filters, which began rolling retired connected Friday, will first beryllium made disposable to Premium subscribers connected mobile devices and tablets successful prime markets, including nan U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa. Spotify estimates nan rollout will beryllium completed complete nan adjacent fewer weeks.

The characteristic arrives arsenic nan institution has been focused connected adding much personalization devices and features to its app successful caller months. These types of tools, while seemingly mini additions, tin thief differentiate Spotify further from competitors while besides making it harder for existing users to leave.

In April, for example, Spotify began offering devices to create personalized playlists utilizing AI prompts, and successful May, it added caller playlist guidance tools arsenic good arsenic a measurement to create your ain civilization screen art. You tin besides now talk to its AI DJ to personalize your euphony selection, and return advantage of a revamped type of Spotify’s flagship personalized playlist, Discover Weekly.

Despite these changes, immoderate users are uncovering Spotify’s interface is becoming excessively crowded, particularly arsenic nan institution wades into societal networking territory by adding messages, comments connected podcasts, polls, Q&As, stories, and a creation that feels much for illustration TikTok aliases YouTube pursuing nan preamble of music videos and video podcasts wrong nan app.

The institution has often faced complaints astir an overly engaged personification interface, and nan continual summation of caller features has near immoderate users feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. That, mixed pinch nan company’s dense attraction connected algorithmic suggestions, has moreover pushed some users to abandon Spotify entirely.

However, Spotify continues to study much users and subscribers — its personification guidelines swelled 11% to 696 cardinal in nan past quarter from a twelvemonth earlier, and subscribers reached 276 million, up 12%.

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Sarah has worked arsenic a newsman for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined nan institution aft having antecedently spent complete 3 years astatine ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her activity arsenic a reporter, Sarah worked successful I.T. crossed a number of industries, including banking, unit and software.

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