Google has announced that its YouTube Music streaming service is now available for Wear OS users who can download the new app tiles and stream over more than 80 million songs and thousands of playlists right from their wrist on a WearOS version 2 device.
In a community post, Google has stated that the YouTube Music app on your WearOS watch is rolling out two new features the first of which enables users to stream music over LTE or WiFi so you can listen to your favourite playlists wherever you go, even when your phone isn’t nearby.
The second feature which is rolling out enables users to add a new YouTube Music tile to your WearOS watch that allows quick access to your recently played playlist or to the browse page of the YouTube Music app.
However, there is a catch, you will need to pair with an Android phone for full functionality and if you’re an iOS (Apple) WearOS user, sadly you will not be able to stream music via an LTE/Cellular connection. Furthermore, it would seem you may need to a be YouTube Music Premium member to enjoy the streaming abilities on your WearOS smartwatch, which seem credible given streaming ad-free is only available for premium subscribers.
Google has said the streaming upgrade should finish rolling out this week to WearOS 2 and Wear OS 3 users. Given the announcement last week of the upcoming Pixel watch, it was about time Google added the ability for a tile and streaming capabilities for YouTube Music beginning to roll out given the only streaming service available before its closure in 2020 was the former Google Play Music or Spotify if available to WearOS users.
If you have a WearOS 2 or WearOS 3 device and are looking for a new music streaming service, then this could be a tempting offer.
You can learn more about how to get started with YouTube Music on WearOS devices here.
What I’d really like is a Youtube Music API. Is there any word on that? What does this app use?