Tag Archives: YouTube Music

Technology

You Can Finally Listen to YouTube Music on Wear OS

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YouTube Music for Wear OS is finally getting a tile!
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

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.

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Technology

Sonos Voice Assistant Leaked, Will Work Alongside Google, Alexa

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The much-rumored Sonos Voice Control feature could arrive to your speakers as soon as next month.
Photo: Victoria Song / Gizmodo

Shouting out “Hey Sonos” to change the music might become a reality in your household in the next few weeks. Sonos is preparing to launch its anticipated voice control functionality in June, an exclusive leak from The Verge claims. It’ll exist as an alternative to Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, which are already supported on select Sonos speakers and soundbars.

The Sonos Voice Control functionality will come packaged as part of an upcoming software update arriving on June 1, says the leak. All Sonos products running on the S2 software will get the ability.

Sonos Voice will supposedly work with various music services at launch, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, Deezer, and—of course—Sonos Radio. However, Google’s YouTube Music and Spotify are glaringly missing from the list.

As previously reported, “Hey Sonos” will be the wake word for your Sonos devices, and any commands you give it are processed on the device. You’ll be able to use your voice to skip songs, adjust the volume, and even check on battery levels.

Sonos’ internal testing, the leak says, showed its voice control could run “core music tasks” faster than the two digital assistants from Google and Amazon. Its voice control feature will also supposedly be programmed to allow for “voice concurrency,” which lets you use two assistants on one device. For instance, you could use Alexa and the Assistant for smart controls and Sonos specifically for music playback.

It’ll be interesting to see this in play. My only other experience with a device-specific voice assistant is “Hey Portal” on the Portal Go, which I can experientially say will often think I’m talking to it when I’m not. The Portal Go also integrates with Alexa.

Sonos declined to comment to The Verge about this latest report on its voice control, and there is still no official announcement from the company despite all the past indications that this feature was coming.

Last year, Sonos started surveying to figure out how a voice assistant would serve its users as an alternative to Google and Amazon’s offerings. There have also been several job listings that have gone up that indicate the company is staffing up in preparation to build out this ability. And with Sonos’ recent win against Google for infringing on its audio patents, it’s looking for an edge to keep its ecosystem thriving against the two giants competing against it.

There appears to be a season of new Sonos hardware and software abilities on the horizon. Recently, other reports suggested that Sonos had an entry-level soundbar in the works, with a potential June 7 launch. Wouldn’t it be nice to pair that with a brand new, faster voice assistant than what’s out there? We’ll see if that’s Sonos’ play in the coming weeks.

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