YouTube Music doesn’t work on old(er) Wear OS watches

If you bought a Wear OS watch in the past, there is a good chance that the YouTube Music app will not run on your wearable for the time being. Google announced the new Wear OS 3 operating system at I/O 2021, as well as the arrival of its YouTube Music to Wear. However, watches with Wear OS 2 are now out in the cold: Google developed the app specifically for Wear OS 3, so it can’t run on the older Wear OS 2.

YouTube Music for Wear OS

Google’s announcement about the arrival of YouTube Music to Wear OS (3) was welcomed with open arms by customers of the music streaming service. After years of controlling music from their phones, it would now be possible to transfer it to their watch. That seems a bit more complicated in retrospect, according to reports from 9to5Google. Google confirmed that its new Wear apps – including YouTube Music and Google Maps – would not be available for the older Wear OS 2. It was hoped that sideloading would offer a solution.

Those hopes were driven by Spotify’s new Wear OS app, which also works on old Wear OS 2 watches. In retrospect, that hope turned out to be in vain. A report from 9to5Google describes how they tried to install the YouTube Music APK of the Galaxy Watch 4, which runs on Wear OS 3, on the Motorola Moto 360. An error in the ADB terminal used to install the app, however, soon brings the exercise to an end. The error also explains Google’s limitation for older Wear OS watches.

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YouTube Music’s application for Wear OS requires API level 30 or higher. However, Wear OS watches that run on Wear OS 2 are still based on API level 28 (Android 9.0 Pie). As a result, it is technically not possible to install the app. Security researcher @linuxct deletes YouTube Music app to make it suitable later for API level 28, but due to problems with ‘signing’ the app, it was not possible to log in and the app remains unusable.

Wear OS 3 watches on the way

Consumers who currently own a Wear OS watch, with the exception of the Galaxy Watch 4, will unfortunately never be able to use Google’s YouTube Music app. Your Wear OS watch may receive an update to Wear OS 3 at a later date. Mobvoi and Fossil, manufacturers with the largest selection of Wear OS watches, have previously confirmed that they want to equip some smartwatches with Wear OS 3. updates to the Wear OS 2 watches will roll out in the second half of 2022.

As for the launch of new Wear OS watches with Wear OS 3: that doesn’t seem to be in it for the time being. Fossil has already indicated that it will launch its Gen 6 smartwatches with Wear OS 2 and upgrade them to Wear OS 3 later. It is not known whether there are other manufacturers that will start working with Wear OS 3 before the end of this year.

Would you like to have the YouTube Music app installed on your smartwatch, or are you okay with having to operate the streaming service from your phone? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.