It took a while, but finally YouTube Music for Wear OS does everything it needs to. Google has in fact published a new post on the support page dedicated to the app (you can find it by following the link in SOURCE) in which it announces that it will be possible to play music not only offline, but also in streaming if you have smartwatches with Wear OS equipped with LTE and / or Wi-Fi connectivity.
Furthermore, full support for functionality will not be missing Smart Download which takes care of keeping up-to-date the list of songs downloaded locally when you are under a Wi-Fi network.
Before celebrating, however, two clarifications. The first is to take advantage of the full functionality of the app You must have an active YouTube Music Premium subscription while the second is the incompatibility of the new features for WearOS users who have paired their smartwatch with an iPhone.
SIGNS OF LIFE
For the rest, it is a small step forward, but still a sign of life, the symptom that perhaps something is really starting to move on the Wear OS front.
Let’s face it: when Google unveiled Wear OS 3 last year, and Samsung then launched the first smartwatches equipped with the new operating system version – namely Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic -, we expected things to proceed faster. .
Google absolutely had to put its hand to its platform dedicated to wearables, now adrift. And so he did, very well: but things are still proceeding slowly, and to date the only devices with Wear OS 3 remain Samsung’s watches, still without (for a while, fortunately) the Assistant.
It is clear, at this point, that the real turning point will come with the launch of the Pixel Watch: last week Google unveiled it during I / O 2022, but it was just a taste, with very few details revealed. Probably with the arrival (scheduled for this autumn) of the Mountain View smartwatch the new season of Wear OS will really begin: or at least, that’s what we hope.
