This app shows you what your friends are listening to from your lock screen

Ever wanted to explore what your friends are listening to over on Spotify and Apple Music? Meet MUBR, a music discovery and listening widget for both iOS and Android that lets you discover your friends’ latest music tastes right from your home or lock screen, without needing to open the app.

This clever widget is pretty much our dream way to connect with friends over music. Once you’ve linked it to your Spotify or Apple Music accounts, you can then send a friend request to your inner circle by selecting them from your contacts or by sending out an invitation link across messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, to have them join in the fun.

The app then displays live songs from your friends on the home page so you can listen along. You can even send them funny emoji reactions or check out their listening history, enabling you to listen to any of their last listened songs.

It’s this focus on social features that has helped MUBR’s download numbers spike, with 1.8 million people worldwide having already used the application, but the idea was actually devised by a small team of just three people - CEO Kirill Ilichev, CTO Sergei Bakaev and CMO Anton Ponikarovskii - and developed in a short space of time.

“We went from an idea to a functional app in just 3 weeks,” MUBR co-founder Anton Ponikarovskii said. “When it came to promotion, our budget was zero. But we had a hunch: our app would be perfect for couples. So we spread the word in small online communities, focusing on romantic couples and those in long-distance relationships.

“Then, on New Year's Eve, something magical happened. A TikTok influencer featured us, and our user numbers shot up. Instead of celebrating, we spent the night glued to our TV, watching the graph of new sign-ups spike.”

Eleven months later, the team then built upon the success of its social features by allowing users to not only explore their friends’ musical tastes, but by allowing more reactions to their listening history.

“Users can craft their own 'MUBR pie', Anton explains. “[It’s a] visual representation showcasing their top artists and genres (a hit feature many love sharing on social media). Plus, we rolled out a Tinder-esque feed, offering even more tailored music suggestions.”

Thanks to the app’s personalized Tinder-like feed, you can find new tracks to explore that suits your own personal taste, while the MUBR pie chart shows your most-listened-to artists and genres using blocks of color, in a similar fashion to fellow small maker projects like Spotify Pie.

And while the MUBR team have already established themselves as a must-download app thanks to its impressive virality across social media platform TikTok (as of August 2023, they had 377K monthly active users in the app and were generating $16.5K in monthly recurring revenue) the team aren’t looking to stop development on the app anytime soon, instead focusing on rolling out their next ambitious plans.

“We're not just stopping at being a cool music-sharing app,” Anton shared. “As MUBR becomes a staple in every U.S. teen's phone, we plan to expand into Netflix, YouTube, Twitch, and Goodreads. Ultimately, we aim to build a social network based on shared interests. Join us, and let's redefine social networking!”