YouTube Music can finally play personal playlists through Google Assistant in select regions. The change, spotted by Android Police, isn’t available everywhere just yet. But it is coming and should solve at least some complaints about the service. Including complaints about the inability to play paid content. So it’s good news for anybody who’s about to be forced off of Google Play Music.
Why wasn’t this feature already available on YouTube Music?
Prior to this technically unofficial announcement, streaming dedicated playlists through any Cast-enabled device was possible. But it actually costs money. Users needed to be signed up for YouTube Music’s premium subscription. And, annoyingly enough, that included for music that had already been purchased, such as that brought over from Google Play Music.
Now, users could, of course, listen to ‘recommended’ tunes via YouTube Music on Google Nest smart speakers and displays. But not just whatever they wanted to. Instead, it would just play personalized lists based on listening history and content the user had told YouTube they liked.
With this change, YouTube is rolling out a test run of features that allow YouTube Music users to play music from personal playlists via Google Assistant. That’s on Nest speakers and smart displays. And it’s also said to be available for both “Free” and “Premium” YouTube Music members. So there shouldn’t be quite so many restrictions for users either.
When can you expect the feature to arrive?
As for when this feature will arrive, it already should be available. Or at least it is for anybody happening to live in the US. The feature began rolling out in the region at some point in the past several days. Better still, the company plans to roll out personal playlists on YouTube Music “in the future.”
That’s not just to other regions, although no timeframe for any of this has been specified. It also applies to other devices, unbuckling YouTube Music from Google-made devices — as any Android app should be. The source also notes that the feature was spotted live in Germany. So it may be available already in parts of Europe. Although that could be a fluke, in and of itself.