How to Show Spotify in Your Slack Status (3 Ways, One Free Script)

To show what you are listening to on Spotify in your Slack status, add a third-party Slack app that syncs the two, because Slack has no built-in Spotify status. The two main options are SpotMyStatus, listed in the Slack Marketplace, and Now Playing (nowplaying.dev). You click Add to Slack, sign in to Spotify, and the app writes the current track and artist into your status with an emoji such as 🎧, then clears it when you pause. Zapier can do the same with a Spotify-to-Slack Zap, and a short script on a Mac can do it for free.

If your company requires admin approval for Slack apps, the install turns into a request that an admin has to approve.

Statuses are what we work on. We build Slack Green, which keeps your Slack presence dot green during the hours you set. A music status and the green dot are separate things, as explained below.

Ways to put Spotify in your Slack status

SpotMyStatus. Its Marketplace listing says it "syncs user's currently playing song from Spotify to Slack status". You can choose to sync music, podcasts or both, pick a set of emojis it rotates through, and limit it to certain Spotify devices, so music on your home speaker does not show at work. It stops updating if you pause syncing, go offline, or set a status by hand.

Now Playing. It reads only the track and artist Spotify is playing, polls every few seconds, and clears your status within a few seconds of you pausing. Its site says it does not read your Slack messages, channels or DMs.

How to set up a Spotify status app

• Open the app's page: search the Slack Marketplace for SpotMyStatus, or go to nowplaying.dev.
• Click Add to Slack and choose your workspace.
• Review the permissions. The app needs to change your profile status, and nothing else should be required.
• Sign in to Spotify and allow the app to read what you are playing.
• Play a song. Within a few seconds your status shows the song, and it clears when you pause.

If you want your usual status back at the end of the day, turn the sync off in the app, or set a status by hand; SpotMyStatus stops overwriting a status you set yourself.

How it works, and what it changes

Every one of these tools does the same thing. It asks Spotify what you are playing, then calls Slack's users.profile.set method with your permission to set status_text and status_emoji. Slack status text has a 100-character limit, so long titles are cut.

What it does not change is your presence, the green or grey dot next to your name. Slack sets that from your activity in Slack, and a status update does not count as activity. You can have "🎧 Peach - Kevin Abstract" in your status and a grey dot at the same time. If the dot is what you want to control, how Slack decides when you are away explains the rule, and does YouTube keep Slack active covers the same question for playing media.

Free option: a script on your Mac

If you would rather not give a third-party app access to your Slack and Spotify accounts, a short script can do it on your own Mac with the Spotify desktop app.

First, get a user token:

Then save this as spotify-slack-status.sh, put your token in it, and run bash spotify-slack-status.sh in Terminal:

#!/bin/bash
# Put the Spotify track playing on this Mac into your Slack status.
# Needs a Slack user token (xoxp-...) with the users.profile:write scope.
TOKEN="xoxp-your-token"

while true; do
  STATE=$(osascript -e 'if application "Spotify" is running then tell application "Spotify" to player state as string')
  if [ "$STATE" = "playing" ]; then
    SONG=$(osascript -e 'tell application "Spotify" to (name of current track) & " - " & (artist of current track)')
    EXPIRES=$(( $(date +%s) + 120 ))   # clears itself 2 minutes after the last update
    BODY=$(jq -n --arg t "${SONG:0:100}" --argjson e "$EXPIRES" \
      '{profile: {status_text: $t, status_emoji: ":headphones:", status_expiration: $e}}')
    curl -s -X POST https://slack.com/api/users.profile.set \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
      --data "$BODY" > /dev/null
  fi
  sleep 60
done

The script checks Spotify once a minute and sets a status that expires 2 minutes later, so when you pause or quit, the status clears by itself. It uses osascript, jq and curl, which ship with current macOS (jq since macOS 15). Press Control-C to stop it. Keep the token private: anyone who has it can change your profile. More on Slack tokens and what each type can do is in Slack xoxc and xoxd tokens, and a script that keeps Slack active is a different thing, covered in script to keep Slack active.

Status ideas when you are not playing music

A music status works for heads-down time. For other moments, Slack status examples and funny Slack status ideas have lists to copy, and how to change your status on Slack covers the clear-after settings. Our free Slack status ideas generator writes one for you.

FAQ

Does Slack have a Spotify integration for status? Not built in. Slack's built-in status sync covers calendars, such as Google Calendar and Outlook meetings. Spotify needs a third-party app.

Is SpotMyStatus free? Its Slack Marketplace listing says "Paid with free trial". Now Playing says it is free for personal workspaces.

Can my coworkers see what I listen to? Yes, anyone who can see your profile sees your status. Limit the app to your work devices, or turn the sync off, if you do not want that.

Does a Spotify status keep me active on Slack? No. The status text and the presence dot are separate.