Spotify is making a renewed push into fitness with the launch of Running Mode, a new iOS-exclusive feature that generates personalized, tempo-matched playlists for Premium subscribers. The tool, which began rolling out on July 30, 2026, lives inside the app’s Fitness Hub and represents the streaming giant’s second attempt at a dedicated running experience after retiring a similar feature in 2018.
Running Mode offers 25 curated presets that users can refine based on workout structure, preferred music genres, target duration, and desired beats per minute. Workout types include interval, pyramid, steady, and tapered runs, among others. Once parameters are set, Spotify’s AI assembles a playlist with what the company describes as “seamless transitions” between tracks to align with the runner’s selected tempo.
The feature also includes optional English-language audio cues that Spotify likens to a “supportive friend,” delivering motivational prompts and guidance at different phases of a workout. The cues are pre-set according to user preferences rather than responding to real-time biometric data.
At launch, Running Mode is available to Spotify Premium subscribers on iOS in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. Spotify has not announced a timeline for an Android release.
The new mode builds directly on Spotify’s Prompted Playlists, an AI feature introduced earlier this year that lets users generate custom playlists through natural-language prompts. The company noted that fitness-themed requests have consistently ranked among the most popular uses of that tool, prompting the development of a more structured running-specific experience.
This is not Spotify’s first running feature. The company previously offered Spotify Running from 2015 until 2018, which used a phone’s sensors to detect a runner’s actual tempo and dynamically match music to their pace. The new Running Mode differs in that it does not automatically adapt to real-time speed changes; instead, runners define their desired BPM and workout structure before starting.
The launch arrives several months after Spotify partnered with Peloton to integrate guided workout classes and wellness creator content into its Fitness Hub, signaling a broader strategy to position the app as a destination for fitness content beyond music streaming.
Alongside Running Mode, Spotify also rolled out User Notes, a cross-platform feature allowing Premium subscribers to add text comments to tracks within personal playlists. Those notes are visible to anyone with access to the playlist.
Whether Running Mode expands beyond its initial iOS launch and select markets will likely depend on user adoption. For now, Spotify appears to be betting that AI-curated, tempo-locked playlists can fill a gap left by the 2018 retirement of its original running tool—and by Strava’s decision earlier this year to end in-app Spotify integration, which had allowed athletes to control playback directly from the fitness platform’s Record screen.
Source: Engadget; Spotify Newsroom; TechCrunch