[Updated: Finally available] YouTube support says Music app for Wear OS rolled out in May 2021

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on August 10, 2021) follows:

Google has been working on several big changes for Wear OS at once. Last month, the Big G commenced the rollout of a Material You redesign of the Play Store app for the OS.

With it, we got a very minor peek at YouTube Music that has been in the works for a while now.

You see, the updated UI of the Play Store now shows filters for “Watch” and “Watch faces” to find wearable apps that can be installed remotely to the watch.

Searching YouTube Music on the store showed a listing for its Wear OS app upon selecting the Wear OS filter. However, apart from this, there was no further info present on the listing.

Of course, this also means that no screenshots were present and that the app wasn’t installable. The take from all that was that Google was and probably still is conducting internal testing for YouTube Music for Wear OS.

However, fast forward to today and there has been a rather perplexing development on the matter.

TeamYouTube on Twitter, in response to a tweet from a user about the whereabouts of YTM for Wear OS, said that the app has already been made available starting May 2021.

But one look at the Watch OS subreddit would land you on a post from a confused user that still hasn’t gotten YouTube Music on the watch version of Android.

Some yt app developer: “oh shoot! I forgot to publish”
Source

As it stands, the said availability never really happened. And those anxiously awaiting its arrival, especially ex-users of the now-defunct Google Play Music service, are waiting for the app to arrive to this day.

So why would YouTube on Twitter state that YTM for Wear OS has already been rolled out, that too months ago, despite the presence of obvious evidence pointing towards the ongoing development of the app?

Honestly, we have no idea. It could be possible that the rollout for the service for Wear OS was indeed started back in May for a very tiny batch of users. But there’s no proof to support this.

The reality is that Watch OS users that were habitual of Google Play Music were forced off the service unreasonably and continue to lack a proper alternative.

Thus, a more plausible explanation is that YouTube’s Twitter handle is simply mistaken here.

Regardless, we will be keeping an eye out for Google’s next move for YouTube Music on Wear OS and will be updating this article accordingly, so stay tuned to PW.

11:23 am (IST): New reports now indicate that YouTube Music might not be coming to older Wear OS 2 smartwatches. More on that in Google’s own post here.

1:43 pm (IST): While we still don’t have a standalone app for YouTube Music on the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Tweet about the availability of the app having been deleted, the demand is still pretty high.

Now, a YT Premium user has shared a few screenshots, an early impression of YouTube Music on Wear OS 3.

12:23 pm (IST): YouTube Music is now available on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. However, there are a few limitations like all playback from YouTube Music should be 128 kbps bitrate AAC.

Also, it is mainly designed for offline playback, as the only way to play music appears once you’ve selected and downloaded your preferred songs or playlists. More on that here.

12:51 pm (IST): After months of speculation, we now have an official release statement for the YouTube Music app for Wear OS 3. However, the experience looks a little limited for non-premium users. Here’s the statement.

We’re launching YouTube Music for Wear OS. Watches running Wear OS 3 will be able to enjoy a brand new app that lets you easily browse through your playlists, recommendations, downloads and allows YouTube Music Premium subscribers to download music for ad-free offline listening, even without your phone nearby. The app also lets you control playback more easily and gives you the option to add songs directly to your library with the ‘Like’ button.
Available to Premium members with devices running Wear OS 3*
*Free-tier members can only listen to their uploaded music.
Source

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