Suunto 7 and music

Aleksander H

@Aleksander-Helgaker Google gets a lot of crap for developing the app for WatchOS first when in fact all they have done is add in a functionality to WatchOS that WearOS has had for years

I’ve been one of those people

olymay

@Aleksander-Helgaker As was I at first

JorgeFD

It is not official but you can use Spotify offline. Search the forum (don’t remember but was posted by me)

Bulkan

@jorgefd78 I saw this video , I think is an updated version

JorgeFD

Trying right now. Didn’t know this version. It feels slow and buggy but it works

olymay

@jorgefd78 It’s an unofficual modified version. It does work but it’s a faff, the interface is rubbish, and it needs Spotify Premium. But it does work.

JorgeFD

@olymay yes i known. months ago I tried other different version and it works much better than this

olymay

@jorgefd78 Yeah, there is a recent version that is much improved, but it is still janky (in my opinion). Thee are full details on XDA if people are interested.

It’s a reasonable stop gap until YTM goes live, but I am happy to take my phone with me for now (and it reduces the battery hit on the watch)

aeroild

If you want Spotify Lite on your Wear OS and you have an Android phone, I can recommend the app Apps2Fire. This Android app is easy to use to connect your phone to the watch and install apps/APK-files from your phone.

JorgeFD

@aeroild good to know. I am using bugjaeger

Jamie BG

@Hollis Baugh: NavMusic/NavExplorer are currently the best options to get any music you own from your phone/pc to your watch, and to play offline on your watch.
The Dev is very good at resolving issues and responding to feature requests/changes/updates.

Jamie BG

@olymay - I could be wrong but have heard the official app on Tizen/Garmin isn’t any better than the unofficial one on wear os.

Doesn’t suprise me - Spotify have really shot themselves in foot with whatever deal they made that prevents them from producing an app for the rest of the wearables - must kill them knowing how badly they have lost out on Apple Watch.

olymay

@jamie-bg I haven’t tried it on Tizen, but the Garmin Spotify app is utterly appalling!!

Do you think there is a deal involved that stops them from producing quality apps? Or are they simply not interested in (what they perceive to be) a small market?

I have been active on the Spotify forums and offline music has ben requested not for at least 8 years. Every now and again Spotify respond with a typical corporate copy and paste answer along the lines…

“We appreciate your feedback and thank you for your continued support. This is a feature we are considering and will provide an update as it progresses.”

I guess one can do a considerable amount of considering in 8 years!!

I honestly think they simply do not care.

Jamie BG

@olymay I am sure I read a about a deal a couple of years back, when Spotify was just taking off, that they did a wearables deal with Tizen and Garmin. I think they must have locked themselves in for far too long, as I can’t see a good reason for them not adjsuting their app to provide offline play - or getting someone to build it for them, for the apple market at the very least.

I think they signed a long term deal, short sightedly thinking that they would never be able to win over Android/Apple market due to their in house solutions. And this has now prevented them from providing an offline app for everyone else; and that is also the reason why Tizen and Garmin - as no inhouse streaming options and next largest markets.

Question has been put to them and they ignore it. Which I think is really stupid- they should just come out and say we messed up - locked in until x date, can’t do anything about it. But I think they think if they were to say it, they would lose custom from their phone/pc customers.
Considering available options, I don’t think they will. I personally think they will lose custom when their is a solution for wear os / Apple Watch. If Google had any brains they should realize they have a huge, and a really huge opportunity to make YouTube Music bigger than spotify. Give a similar service, same price and provide decent app for phone, wearable , PC and connect to Google/Alexa devices - and bingo, bye bye Spotify.

olymay

@jamie-bg that would be incredibly short sighted of Spotify if true and will likely come back to bite them.

Google have confirmed they are working on a YouTube Music app for WearOS, but there is no confirmation if it will include offline playback, but as Google Play Music had this then I am hopeful.
There is also no hint as to when it will be released. They should have have had it ready before they killed GPM, but hey ho.

Jamie BG

@olymay should have kept play music until YouTube was ready - it really worked well too.

olymay

@jamie-bg Agreed, it was brilliant.

However, for the most part YTM is pretty good on the phone (million times better than when it launched!) so I am hoping that the WearOS version will also be pretty decent

Aleksander H

@olymay said in Suunto 7 and music:

Google have confirmed they are working on a YouTube Music app for WearOS, but there is no confirmation if it will include offline playback, but as Google Play Music had this then I am hopeful.

Just incase anyone is wondering where they have confirmed this,

https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-music-now-available-apple-watch/

Close to the end they say

Stay tuned for additional updates on YouTube Music availability on WearOS.

This is a blog post from 15th October. Hopefully we wont have to stay tuned for to much longer.

Jamie BG

@aleksander-h could be in for a long wait, considering from when other blogs/people announced the weather update / the tile update which we still don’t have - Suunto I believe this is on you / and the H MR2 update - which we were the first to receive, but some other manufacturers are only receiving now (manufacturers fault).

Generally wear os stuff only gets announced when its going to launch, so wouldn’t hold my breath. If you see blogs starting to get excited about, then can start waiting.

olymay

@jamie-bg I would agree with you, except that a YTM app will be exactly that, a separate app, and not directly tied into WearOS itself. It will simply need Google to publish it to the Play Store and there will be no need to liaise with hardware manufacturers etc.
Hopefully this will speed things up.