Music, podcasts, audiobooks… emergency alerts? Spotify's latest test sees the streaming app venturing into new territory, testing an emergency alert system in its home country of Sweden. According to code references found within the Spotify app, the company is looking at a system that could help deliver public announcements about “accidents, major events, significant service disruptions, and more.”
The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it is testing such a system, but did not explain why it's interested in offering this kind of service to users. Swedish law does not require apps to do so, and Spotify said that at this point it's only exploring whether the app could support something like an emergency alert system.
The feature was first spotted by technologist and reverse engineer Chris Messina, who theorized that emergency alert services could be prompting Spotify users to enable notifications for the app. Users often disable notifications from non-essential apps, such as social networking or entertainment apps, making it harder for apps to grab users' attention and promote new features.
But more broadly, supporting emergency alerts could also position Spotify as a more important app to have on hand. It would also tread into Meta territory, as the social network has offered a way for users to stay up to date on major disasters for about a decade with its Safety Check feature. Google has also used the popularity of its apps to inform users of disasters, such as earthquake alerts on Android. In the U.S., lawmakers have previously considered mandating support for emergency alerts from online video and streaming apps, in addition to TV and radio broadcasters and cable TV systems.
The Spotify app code reference mentions this feature in the following phrase:
“Swedish emergency alerts” “Receive public emergency alerts” “Important Public Announcements (IPA) is a system used to alert the Swedish public in case of accidents, major events or disruptions to essential services” “For more information, visit the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency site”
Reached for comment, a Spotify representative confirmed the test in a statement, adding that for now it's only being tested in Sweden.
“At Spotify, we regularly run numerous tests to improve our user experience,” they say. “Some of these tests pave the way for broader user experiences, but most serve only as important learnings.”