Google has finally released a Wear OS app for YouTube Music, which could seem like welcome news for people who have been waiting for a way to play their music off Google’s streaming service after the company shut down Google Play Music on Wear OS in August 2020. But the new app comes with a few caveats.
The biggest catch is that the new app only works on one of Samsung’s two new watches powered by Wear OS 3, according to Google. Those watches won’t be available until August 27th, so even if you want to try the new app right now, you won’t be able to unless you have a Galaxy Watch 4 or a Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.
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. However, based on 9to5Google’s hands-on with the app, it sounds like there might be some frustrating caveats you’ll have to keep in mind when you’re actually using the Wear OS YouTube Music app.
9to5Google says there doesn’t appear to be a way to stream music from the app — it appears that you can only download music right now. And annoyingly, you can only download songs while the watch is on a charger, 9to5Google reports.
Still, it’s nice that a YouTube Music Wear OS app is available at all, even in its currently limited form. Google hasn’t shared details about when the app might be available on other Wear OS devices.
