Spotify’s Wear OS app is getting long-awaited feature, you should know this

Wear OS was in winter mode for years. The winter season seems to be over after the I / O conference, which is also evident from updates that Wear OS developers are rolling out to the platform. For example, it became known during Google I / O that Spotify will offer the possibility to store music locally.

Spotify update for Wear OS

For years, Wear OS was seen as Google’s concern child, sparking an aversion to the platform among Wear OS developers. Wear OS was packed with features, but along with those features, the platform also contained a lot of bugs and less and less Wear watches were sold. Google’s partnership with Samsung to overhaul the Wear platform is now changing developers’ minds. For example, it became known during Google I / O that apps like Strava would be partially or completely renewed.

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Spotify will not completely renew its app, as became clear during the I / O opening keynote, but it will bring an important function of its mobile and desktop apps to the Wear OS app. This involves downloading music on the internal storage of Wear OS devices. Currently, when listening to music via the Spotify app on Wear OS, you must always have an internet connection. If you lose this connection, it is not possible to continue listening to music.

Spotify explains in its presentation slides from I / O that the update makes it possible to download entire playlists. It is currently unknown whether Spotify will also allow you to download individual songs. It is also still unknown to what extent it will be possible to pre-select the quality of the files to be downloaded. This is already possible in the Spotify app on Android and computers.

Wear OS in the ‘catch-up race’

The fact that Spotify only adds the download function after the collaboration with Samsung is striking, given that the Spotify app for Tizen already offered the option to store music locally. At the same time, Spotify doesn’t seem to have specifically held back the feature from Wear. An update that should bring the function to WatchOS – Apple’s operating system for smartwatches – is rolling out at the same time as the Spotify update for Wear OS.

Meanwhile, Google is bringing its YouTube Music app to Wear OS. According to Google, that app, just like Spotify, will have a function to store music locally. Both apps are currently not available yet. The YouTube Music app will not be released until later this year, along with the major Wear OS update. The company did not announce exactly when that will happen during I / O 2021.

Spotify says its update for downloading music on Wear OS will be rolling out shortly. The feature is currently under development, so it may take some time to download music to your Wear OS watch. Would you like to download music on your watch? What circumstances would you like to download music locally to your watch for? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the article.