After Google shut down Google Play Music on Wear OS in August 2020, the company has finally released a Wear OS app for YouTube Music to enable users to play their music offline.
The new app comes with specific stipulations and conditions as it only works on one of Samsung’s two new watches powered by Wear OS 3.
According to Google, these watches won’t be available until August 27th, stating that even if you want to try the new app right away, you won’t be able unless you have a Galaxy Watch 4 or a Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.
Google said if you are lucky enough to have one of the new watches, the YouTube Music Wear OS will let YouTube Premium subscribers download music right to their watch, meaning you can listen to tunes with just a watch and a pair of Bluetooth headphones, even when you don’t have an Internet connection.
The 9to5Google reported that the app is available today on the Play Store, the Wear OS version of YouTube Music offers up access to all of your playlists, mixes, and, of course, playback controls.
According to 9to5Google, “The headline feature, though, is support for offline music storage so your smartwatch can handle playback to Bluetooth headphones, enabling you to leave your phone at home.”
“Diving into the app, it opens up to a sign-in screen where you can select from the YouTube accounts on your watch. It won’t acknowledge any additional Google accounts on your paired smartphone.”
“After signing in, you’ll be presented with three distinct sections — Downloads, Recommended, and Library. These sections are mostly self-explanatory, but initially, the Downloads one will be empty. To download content for offline use, you’ll simply tap on a playlist or mix and be presented with a huge download button. You can’t browse a playlist’s content at all, with even downloaded playlists only showing a shuffle button when tapped.”
“Importantly, downloads can only happen when the watch is on a charger — there’s no way to do it otherwise. The app will also default to downloading solely on Wi-Fi, but you can toggle that if you wish. There’s a “Smart Downloads” feature in the Settings, which can be customized to download between 50 and 500 songs, depending on how much storage you have available. There’s also a toggle for “Restricted Mode” that filters out explicit content and a “Privacy & Location” page that exists only to tell you to deal with that on your phone.”
“Playback encourages using a Bluetooth headset by automatically opening that menu when you hit shuffle, but the app will play through the watch’s speaker if those Bluetooth headphones fail to stay connected. As far as I can tell, though, there’s no way to start playback without a Bluetooth audio device of some kind connected.”
“The playback controls page shows the time at the top with track and artist details below. The majority of the screen is dominated by large touch targets for play/pause, next, and previous track. There’s also a volume shortcut and “like” button at the bottom of the interface. On Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, the rotating bezel can also be used for constant volume control when this page is open. The UI also tweaks its color based on the song, presumably based on the album art.”
Meanwhile, the impact of the app is certainly diminished by its release availability because the app is solely available on Google’s new Wear OS 3 platform, which, for the foreseeable future, will only be available on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, 9to5Google added.
“Most current Wear OS hardware, won’t be updated to that new platform, and the ones that will be updated for several months.”
Meanwhile, Google hasn’t shared details about when the app will be available on other Wear OS devices.
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