Added to strangers playlist?

[Wobbled]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Pixel 4a

Operating System

Android 12

My Question or Issue

I just got back from the supermarket where I encountered a weird situation: I had my music paused and noticed I got a google notification along the lines of "Your friend <nick> has started playing <playlist>. Tap to listen or add songs" (this is not verbatim, mind). At some point I tapped to see what would happen, but the notification disappeared.

When I got out of the shop I unpaused my music and noticed playback was on this other person's iphone and it wasn't my music playing but theirs.

I have no idea who this person is or how they added me to their playlist and would really appreciate finding out how this happened. How did they discover my phone? Why were they labelled as my "friend"?

[Alex]

Hey @Wobbled,

Thanks for reaching out about this in the Community!

This seems a bit odd. Can you clarify if you were added to a Collaborative playlists, where you could add/ remove songs or you could see what they were playing on their own device.

It would be great if you can submit a screenshot if this happens again.

Looking forward to your reply.

[Wobbled]

I've never used a collaborative playlist before, so couldn't say. I did, as far as I can tell, manage to start playing a song of my choosing on the other person's phone (before quickly realising and changing the playback device to my phone).

From what I can tell I don't have access to any playlists that shouldn't be there.

And of course it was only after the fact that I realised taking screenshots would have been useful. If it

[Mario]

Hey @Wobbled,

Thanks for clarifying!

Any chances you accessed your own account on this person's phone? Mind double-checking? The fact you had your music paused all of a sudden after previously listening to it on someone else's phone seems to be suggesting that. To be 100% sure, try logging out everywhere and then logging back in to your account on your phone, to see if you can then play without interruptions.

Let us know how you get on. Cheers!

[Wobbled]

I've never met this person, so it's unlikely I could be logged in to their phone. I've not had any interaction with the person since. I have as requested logged out everywhere and if it happens again I'll try and grab screenshots and post them. It's all very odd...

[Kiril]

Hey there @Wobbled,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop here.

Just popping in the thread here to share some more info about a feature called Group Sessions. You can read all about it here. It seems that someone could've sent you accidentally an invitation for such a group session. Hope this makes sense and gives you more clarity on what could have caused the situation.

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you.

[Wobbled]

That could well be it. I'll try the group session out and see if it matches my experience. Thanks for the info!