SoundShare’s new iMessage app lets you text your friends entire songs

A new iMessage app from the music-focused social network SoundShare will now let you share entire tracks with your friends over text messaging. Of course, there are already a number of ways to text friends your favorite music, thanks to the launch of the iMessage App Store. Apple Music has a built-in iMessage app, for example, and Pandora also rolled out one of its own earlier this month. However, these apps are limited because they work best for those who are already using the given service, or have the appropriate app installed.

Pandora’s iMessage app will kick non-users over the App Store to download it, if the recipient doesn’t have its app installed on their device. Plus, because it’s a music radio service, when your friend taps the track you’ve sent, it only plays a 30-second sample.

And if you want to interact with the track further, you tap it to start a Pandora artist station. This isn’t exactly the ideal way to share a song you want your friend to listen to it in its entirety.

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SoundShare’s app works around the problem of people using different music services by giving your friend the option as to where they want to hear the song.

By default, the recipient can choose to launch the song’s video on YouTube; stream it through Apple Music, if they’re a subscriber; or launch iTunes to hear the preview, and optionally purchase it or the album.

Unfortunately, though SoundShare itself works with Spotify (Premium) and Deezer, these are not options in the iMessage app – you can only launch the track to stream in full on SoundShare, if you’ve previously connected Spotify or Deezer to your SoundShare account.

The new iMessage app arrived in a recent update to SoundShare’s flagship iOS app, which debuted earlier this year. The main application offers a music social network of sorts, where you can find and follow others, create collaborative playlists, or view your friends’ playlists – no matter which music service they’ve chosen to use.

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But the iMessage app is what makes SoundShare worth the install, really. It’s a better experience than just texting a YouTube link, which is what many people do today when sharing music over text messaging.

Once installed, you can access SoundShare from the apps screen in iMessage. The interface offers a list of the Top 100 songs on its social network, which is useful if you want to see what’s trending and popular. However, it doesn’t have separate sections for songs by genre or new releases. Instead, you just type in what you’re looking for using the search bar, then tap the song to send it to your friend.

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The result is a much improved experience for the recipient versus getting a YouTube link, as SoundShare displays an image thumbnail alongside a link that will offer all the streaming options.

SoundShare’s new iMessage app is a free download from the iTunes App Store, and works on iOS 10 and higher.