Spotify launched Running Mode today, a new feature that converts playlists into structured running sessions built around workout type, duration, beats per minute, and personal music taste, available to Premium subscribers on iPhone in seven markets.
The feature lives inside Spotify’s Fitness Hub and gives runners 25 curated presets to choose from. Users configure their session by workout type (interval, steady, or pyramid), set a target duration and BPM, and specify their music preference. Spotify then selects tracks matched to that tempo and advances through them as the session progresses. Optional English-language audio cues can be enabled to guide users through the workout.
Running Mode is available to Premium users on iOS in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. Android and free-tier users are not included at launch.
Strava discontinued its in-app Spotify integration late last month, pulling the music controls that had been part of Strava’s workout display since 2023. Runners who relied on that pairing now have a gap in their setup, and Running Mode is a credible answer to that problem, even if it keeps everything inside Spotify’s own app rather than surfacing inside a third-party tracker like Strava or Garmin Connect.
Spotify says the feature grew partly out of usage patterns in its Prompted Playlists tool, a natural-language playlist generator that fielded a large volume of fitness-related requests. That lineage makes Running Mode feel less like a sudden strategic pivot and more like a logical next step. In April 2026, Spotify added guided workout experiences for yoga, running, dancing, and HIIT to its Fitness Hub, along with Peloton classes in select markets, so the infrastructure for a dedicated running feature was already in place before today’s launch.
The company notes that nearly 70 percent of Premium subscribers work out monthly and that there are already more than 150 million fitness-themed playlists on the platform. Running Mode is aimed at converting that passive listening behavior into something more structured and, from Spotify’s perspective, harder to replace with a competitor. For iPhone users who track fitness metrics without a dedicated running platform, it fills a gap that previously required juggling multiple apps.
