People who possess similar tastes in music are said to speak the same music language. It is because the habit of music is very intimate and personal. It is quite understandable that one might wish to keep their musical playlist private.

The trouble is, if you use Spotify, then your playlist as well as recently played tracks, are available to a group of people on Spotify. If so, then how to remove Recently Played on Spotify? We’re here to answer this and a few more of your Spotify troubles. So, stay tuned till the end!

Can someone see my ‘Recently played’ on Spotify?

Many people are unaware that their ‘Recently Played’ list on Spotify is available to others. People can see up to the last 50 songs they listened to on Spotify!

It is a default feature of Spotify that your ‘Recently Played’ Playlist is accessible to anyone who taps on your Profile Picture on Spotify. In fact, the people who follow you will have zero trouble accessing your listening history on Spotify. Without repeatedly making your listening activity private, there is no other way to prevent this intrusion into your listening experience. And the process of doing this is what we are about to tell you next.

How to remove Recently Played on Spotify from your iPhone & Android phone

The only contextual setback in this case is that one cannot exactly clear their Spotify Recently Played list. With that being said, all is not lost.

Since there is no straightforward option to delete the Recently Played list of Spotify, you have to employ some clever tricks and workarounds. One such is hiding your listening activity from your followers.

The idea here is that this method would prevent your followers from knowing your listening history. This is the main reason why you’d want to delete the Recently Played list in the first place.

Here’s how to hide Spotify listening activity on iPhone and Android:

How to Remove Recently Played on Spotify from iPhone or Android

Step 1: Open the Spotify app.
Step 2: Get to the Spotify home screen.
Step 3: At the top right corner, you should find the Settings (cogwheel/gear) icon. Tap it.
Step 4: In the Settings, scroll to find the ‘Social’ option and tap it.
Step 5: In it, there will be a ‘Private Sessions’ option, and slide its toggle to the right to turn it on.
Step 6: Also, turn off the toggle for ‘Listening Activity.’

This prevents your listening activities from getting accessed by your followers or anyone else.

How to clear recently played on Spotify from the Web Player?

Spotify provides users with a Web Player that works in Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, and Opera. There are users who regularly use the web player version of Spotify.

However, listening to Spotify on the Web player cannot give you the golden solution of deleting recently played songs. You need to improvise on the method again in order to clear the Recently Played list on Spotify Web Player.

Here are the steps you need to walk through:

Get to the Spotify Web Player.
Tap the drop-down menu under your profile name.
Choose the ‘Private session’.

This means your listening history would be private.

How to remove the Recently Played list from your Spotify desktop app on a PC

Before 2022, you could remove songs or playlists from your Spotify Recently Played list from your desktop or laptop. But after 2022, that feature has been removed abruptly. That being said, if you use the older version of Spotify, then you can remove

On your PC, open the Spotify app specified for your desktop.
Find the ‘Your Library’ option.
Click on the ‘Recently Played’ list.
Pick any of the playlists and click on the ellipsis (triple dots) icon.
Select ‘Remove from recently played’.
Repeat the same for other playlists.

This is how you can clear recently played on your Spotify desktop app.

How to turn off Recently played artists on Spotify

If anyone taps on your Spotify profile, they will be able to see your recently played artists. This might be against your very own personal privacy policy! So, you have to take the pain of disabling the Recently played artists. Don’t be afraid if that is the case. All you need to do is disable the Recently Played Artists on Spotify.

There are two different ways to disable the Recently Played artists. You can disable it both in mobile devices and desktops. We provide the steps to disable Recently Played Artists below:

Here’s how to disable Recently Played Artists on Mobile Devices:

Step 1: On your phone, go to Spotify.
Step 2: Go to Home.
Step 3: Tap the cogwheel icon for ‘Settings’.
Step 4: Under ‘Social’, toggle ‘Recently played Artists’ Off.

Here’s how to disable recently played Artists on your desktop:

Step 1: Open the Spotify Desktop app and open it.
Step 2: Click your ‘Profile Picture’.
Step 3: Select ‘Settings’.
Step 4: Under social, toggle Show my recently played artists on my public profile off.

In case you wish to enable recently played artists, you just need to toggle the option on in the respective devices.

How does Recently Played actually work on Spotify?

A lot of people get confused about this feature of Spotify, so here are a few characteristics that will get you more acquainted with ‘Recently Played’ on Spotify:

The ‘Recently Played’ usually stays 33 days on Spotify if the system is not reset or renewed. In fact, if someone reloads their Spotify, the data will be lost.
Only 50 songs can stay in the Recently Played Playlist.
The songs that are listened to at a lesser duration of 30 seconds don’t go to this playlist.
Recently Played works for individual devices. That is, suppose you listened to a set of music on your phone, and your ‘Recently Played’ on the desktop would not have them! And vice-versa.

So, that’s it?

It is a matter of remorse that the indirect steps are all one can do to clear their Spotify listening History. We answered how to remove Recently Played on Spotify in a manner that would simplify this often-incomprehensible problem for you.

Spotify doesn’t really acknowledge this problem properly, nor does it show any signs of addressing it. So, you have to take these longer routes in order to get rid of recently played from Spotify and keep things private. Although they are time-consuming, they serve you well!