This just crosses the streams: music, podcasts and audiobooks. maybe emergency alerts? Spotify is at it again, pushing the audio streaming app to a new frontier with a test emergency alert system for its home country of Sweden. In code references used within the Spotify app, the company is said to be looking at a system that would assist distribute public notice of such things as "accidents, serious events, or disruptions of important services.".

The company confirmed to TechCrunch that yes, it is indeed testing just such a system, but did not explain why it would be interested in providing such service for its users. There's no Swedish law requiring the app to do so, and Spotify says that, for now, it's only testing to see whether or not the app could support something like an emergency alerts system.

First discovered by technologist and reverse engineer Chris Messina, the feature theorized that an emergency alerts service could push Spotify users to enable their app notifications. Often, users disable alerts from such non-essential apps as often found in the social networking or entertainment space, which makes it more difficult for the app to catch users' attention and market its new features.

But more broadly, enabling emergency alerts will also make Spotify an even more necessary app to carry in their pocket. It also encroaches on Meta territory, as the social network has offered ways users get updates for nearly a decade through its Safety Check feature during major disasters. Google similarly used its uber-popular app to notify users of disasters, as with earthquake alerts on Android. In the United States, Congress has considered the notion of making it mandatory to add online video and streaming apps to the list of entities that must carry emergency alerts, along with TV and radio broadcasters and cable TV systems.

Code phrases in the Spotify app refer to the feature throughout the following phrases:

"Emergency alerts in Sweden"
"Get public emergency alerts"
Important public announcement, IPA, is the system used in Sweden to alert the public if there are accidents, serious events, or disruptions of important services'
'Visit the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency site for more information'
Reached for comment, a company rep for Spotify confirmed the test in a statement, adding it was only being tested in Sweden for the time being.

They told us that "At Spotify, we are constantly running a number of experiments in order to improve our user experience," they said. "Some of those experiments end up laying the groundwork for our overall user experience while most serve only as an important learning.".