The feature was uncovered by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who has a track record of revealing accurate information about upcoming features in apps. She found the currently inactive Tastebuds page on the Spotify web app.

Spotify is working on Tastebuds, letting users discover music through their friends pic.twitter.com/uqUXmRvEKo — Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) December 18, 2019

Spotify describes Tastebuds as a tool to "discover music through friends whose taste you trust." Wong revealed more about how the feature will operate to TechCrunch, describing how users can click the pen icon to search for people they follow, see their listening habits and listen to favorite tracks for themselves.

Spotify is notably low on social features, even after it acquired voice messaging platform Cord Project and social music app Soundwave in 2016. It does have a feature for building collaborative playlists, and an option to view public profile activities through Friend Actvitiy.

The large majority of Spotify recommendations are algorithmically generated, however, so Tastebuds marks a new direction for the service using social music discovery.