Last month, Google made YouTube Music available on Android TV through its YouTube app. The company has now announced a dedicated YouTube Music Android TV app along with a few new features.
Google is set to wholly replace Google Play Music with the new YouTube Music service. Though it lacked several features initially, the company is gradually updating the app and its features.
Google Assistant now works with YouTube Music
First off, YouTube Music gets support for Google Assistant. Using the command “Hey Google, play recommended music from YouTube Music,” the users can play favorite songs on their smartphone or smart speaker. Based on the user’s listening history, the app offers personalized music suggestions across favorite artists and genres.
Speaking of the YouTube Music app for Android TV, it’s merely a shortcut to the Music section of the YouTube app. Furthermore, it still lacks basic features for any music app like search and background playback. Google has to come up with a full-fledged Android TV app to compete with rivals like Spotify.
Youtube Music gets a dedicated Android TV app
The company should note that a video streaming app is not the preferred choice for a music streaming service. This new app could be a temporary solution until Google comes up with a completely redesigned YouTube Music app for Android TV. Waze got the YouTube Music integration in August 2019. Now, in August 2020, Google is bringing a similar integration to Google Maps.
However, this integration for Google Maps and Waze will only be available to YouTube Music paying customers. With this, the user can quickly pause or skip the song while navigating. Google first introduced media playback controls within the Maps app in 2018. It supports multiple streaming services like Google Play Music, Apple Music, and Spotify.
YouTube Music support for Google Maps was first spotted in June this year. Now comes the official confirmation for the integration within both the Google Maps and Waze apps. A few days back, Google also added the “Recent activity” section which shows the history just like the “Recents” section in Google Play Music.
Even with all these newly added features, YouTube Music still misses key features in comparison to Google Play Music. In the last few months, Google has added several new features to YouTube Music from Google Play Music. However, it needs to do a lot more to make YouTube Music stay in competition with Spotify and Apple Music.