Spotify’s new ‘smart filters’ let you screen library content by activity, genre or mood

Spotify is giving users more ways to personalize what they hear. The company is launching a new feature that allows users to filter their library by specific activities, moods, or genres. These filters can also be used to find playlists, or, to some extent, audio books and podcasts, and can even kick off a new session on Spotify’s AI DJ.

The smart filters, which began rolling out on Friday, will first be made available to Premium subscribers on mobile devices and tablets in select markets, including the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa. Spotify estimates the rollout will be completed over the next few weeks.

The feature arrives as the company has been focused on adding more personalization tools and features to its app in recent months. These types of tools, while seemingly small additions, can help differentiate Spotify further from competitors while also making it harder for existing users to leave.

In April, for example, Spotify began offering tools to create personalized playlists using AI prompts, and in May, it added new playlist management tools as well as a way to create your own custom cover art. You can also now talk to its AI DJ to personalize your music selection, and take advantage of a revamped version of Spotify’s flagship personalized playlist, Discover Weekly.

Despite these changes, some users are finding Spotify’s interface is becoming too crowded, especially as the company wades into social networking territory by adding messages, comments on podcasts, polls, Q&As, stories, and a design that feels more like TikTok or YouTube following the introduction of music videos and video podcasts within the app.

The company has often faced complaints about an overly busy user interface, and the continual addition of new features has left some users feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. That, combined with the company’s heavy focus on algorithmic suggestions, has even pushed some users to abandon Spotify entirely.

However, Spotify continues to report more users and subscribers — its user base swelled 11% to 696 million in the last quarter from a year earlier, and subscribers reached 276 million, up 12%.