Good news for YouTube Music listeners! A compatible app for Wear OS is finally available so that you can take your playlists with you on the go.
Google announced in a user community post that YouTube Music is finally a standalone app. This week, the company will start rolling out the ability to stream YouTube Music over LTE and wifi. You’ll no longer need to carry your phone in your back pocket to access your YouTube Music playlists or pre-download the music you want to listen to out on the trail. All you’ll need is an internet connection on the watch itself.
This standalone version of YouTube Music is the first smartwatch app for the streaming service after it brutally replaced Google Play Music in late 2020. Samsung had pre-announced this ability earlier this year for its flagship smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch 4, which is one of our favorite Android-based watches at the moment.
If you’re a YouTube Music Premium subscriber, you’ll have access to all of the service’s streaming library, plus premade playlists. You won’t have to endure ads either, and the app comes with a Smart Downloads feature to ensure the newest music is synced to your watch any time it’s back on WiFi. YouTube Music will also start aggregating new playlists based on your history as you keep listening.
If you’re already on a Wear OS smartwatch, you’ll have access to the new YouTube Music tile. The tile is like a quick-launch remote for any recently played playlists. It’ll also allow you to browse the main page of the YouTube Music app from your watch.
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Tiles work like widgets, wherein you can place it in its own screen space of sorts to swipe over to it when you’re ready to listen. Music apps like Spotify offer a similar tile that stays embedded in the Wear OS interface, so you can head over and start the music regardless if you have headphones on.
For more information, Google has updated its support page with instructions on the new YouTube Music app for Wear OS. The update should roll out for YouTube Music users this week.
