Apple Seeds First watchOS 4.1 Beta to Developers With Apple Music Streaming, New Radio App

[tcellguy]

Can someone please confirm that watchOS 4.1 reinstates the ability to choose the iPhone as a music source?

I want to be able to use my bluetooth headphones paired to the iPhone (not the watch) and use the watch to browse through and initiate playing music on the iPhone as it has been in all prior versions of watchOS.

I think it makes no sense to use the watch connected to bluetooth headphones and stream Wifi music all day, eating up the battery when I could previously directly play previously downloaded content.

 

[Braderunner]

Why would it change? It’s not advertised as such either.
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Do you have s3 gps? Any screenshots?

Do you realize that was a response to someone saying series 2, running Watch OS 3 could stream Apple Music, and not series 3 with GPS only, running OS 4?

 

[BlueBook]

It’s a small detail, but hopefully Apple fixes the new activity ring animations so they can be viewed with notification privacy turned on.

 

[MrSkoTA]

You and me BOTH! (and a ton of other unhappy folks) Go to the bugreport.apple.com and submit a modification request.... The more folks we get to do this the better the chances.

Wow yeah this is pretty crappy you can't access this - hadn't noticed until you pointed it out. I imagine that the music app is a re-write and they had to leave out basic whole library functionality from the phone until they could build the whole thing out completely. Still pretty big loss of feature though! Hopefully it will come back!

 

[RickInHouston]

Wow.

Nothin' but complainin' about the watch on this thread!

 

[Nicky G]

Got my first Apple Watch, Series 3 LTE, and I have to say, this is a pretty cool gadget. Called my Mom while on a walk without my phone, how cool is that? Dick Tracy yo!

Can’t WAIT for Apple Music on this thing — that plus fitness/activity/heart tracking is killer! The fuuuutuuuure!

 

[MrXiro]

Am I right in thinking if you force touch you can choose the source?

Only between your phone and your watch's storage.

 

[jonnysods]

They need to tighten up on the battery on the S2. Man I miss 3.1, such great battery life...

 

[ItsGavinC]

for me my watch is VERY important part of my fitness regime. I would NOT play with a beta and take the chance of not having my activity posting. Apple posts the Developers beta for use on testing third party apps not for normal operations. I will wait.

Go ahead and update. These .1 updates won't have a problem.

 

[DeepIn2U]

If they don't bring back the ability to manage your Music collection with the iPhone connected I will be livid. Why they removed this feature I will never understand. And please don't tell me to push people to get an LTE Watch. That's the last thing it will make me do.

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Why are we using one word who's definition does not match what is meant:
Manage - you never could EDIT the playlist of music from the AW 1/S1/S2.

The word I belive you mean is Control.

Isn't it there right now?

Start music playing from your iPhone, you can access and manage all your music collection on the iPhone.
Start music playing from your Watch, you can access and manage all your music collection on your watch.

Thta's how it is now ... but the ability as someone mentioned after I did and before my quoting you now - is remotely control using the watch exclusively.

That's not how it was.
Previously you had two libraries - the music synced to your watch from the Watch App on iPhone, and your iPhone's entire library. You didn't need to pull out your phone just to start a radio station or playlist, just use your watch as a 'remote'.

I have partial albums synced because of space restrictions, and can't play the whole album when I start it on my watch - I want it to work more like the iPhone does: have access to the whole library but a toggle to show only 'downloaded' music.

We had 1 local AW library. Then we also could control playback of the iPhone library IF you ForceTouched to select SOURCE on the AW then control library on the iPhone.

 

[Jolson247]

I got excited about the “Radio” app thinking it was actually a terrestrial radio station app, perhaps through the use of a chip that nearly every other mobile phone carries. They come in handy while on treadmills and for listening to the TVs at the gym. Also for listening to local sports games. Bummer that this isn’t that kind of app and that the watch doesn’t have the functionality.

 

[porkrind]

I think it makes no sense to use the watch connected to bluetooth headphones and stream Wifi music all day, eating up the battery when I could previously directly play previously downloaded content.

How is that different from how it was before? If the watch is streaming music from Apple Music using the phone as the connection, is that practically speaking any different than streaming from the phone's downloaded music?

If it's not saved locally on the watch, it's streaming there one way or the other.

 

[tcellguy]

How is that different from how it was before? If the watch is streaming music from Apple Music using the phone as the connection, is that practically speaking any different than streaming from the phone's downloaded music?

If it's not saved locally on the watch, it's streaming there one way or the other.

I’m not sure I follow. I don’t want to stream over WiFi or LTE. I just want to use the watch as a remote for the downloaded songs on the phone as before. I’m only speculating here, but it seems that it would be more energetically costly to have a Bluetooth relay from the phone to the watch and then to headphones. But, maybe I’m wrong.

The new setup seems like it requires:
- series three
- Apple Music subscription
- constant WiFi or data connection

Even if I buy a series 3 I don’t always have access to WiFi or LTE. Additionally even steaming over WiFi seems to be more energetically demanding than playing locally stored music and I want to maximize battery life.

Maybe there will be a good solution that makes this all work but I’m not hopeful.

 

[backontwo]

I’m not sure I follow. I don’t want to stream over WiFi or LTE. I just want to use the watch as a remote for the downloaded songs on the phone as before. I’m only speculating here, but it seems that it would be more energetically costly to have a Bluetooth relay from the phone to the watch and then to headphones. But, maybe I’m wrong.

The new setup seems like it requires:
- series three
- Apple Music subscription
- constant WiFi or data connection

Even if I buy a series 3 I don’t always have access to WiFi or LTE. Additionally even steaming over WiFi seems to be more energetically demanding than playing locally stored music and I want to maximize battery life.

Maybe there will be a good solution that makes this all work but I’m not hopeful.

Maybe i’m misunderstanding what you’re asking about, but if you’re playing music from your phone, the Now Playing app on the watch still works and you can control music either from your phone or your watch with it.

 

[fatalhorizon]

Maybe i’m misunderstanding what you’re asking about, but if you’re playing music from your phone, the Now Playing app on the watch still works and you can control music either from your phone or your watch with it.

That is technically correct, but what you can do there is limited to pause, play, skip and adjust volume only after starting the song on the iPhone. On previous versions of WatchOS, you could browse the entire iPhone library to start playing and/or choose a different song all from the watch. You cloud also start a song playing on the iPhone by using Siri on the Watch. This functionality seems to be removed and is a fairly big deal for those of us who like to change songs in the car while keeping our eyes on the road.

 

[tcellguy]

That is technically correct, but what you can do there is limited to pause, play, skip and adjust volume only after starting the song on the iPhone. On previous versions of WatchOS, you could browse the entire iPhone library to start playing and/or choose a different song all from the watch. You cloud also start a song playing on the iPhone by using Siri on the Watch. This functionality seems to be removed and is a fairly big deal for those of us who like to change songs in the car while keeping our eyes on the road.

Exactly this. It’s faster to quickly enter the old music app from watchOS 1-3 and pick new music to play - especially from the recently added list.

I often have my phone charging but could play music from it and choose new music to play from it with watchOS 3.

Often it’s even faster than getting the phone out of my pocket.

On an aesthetic level, I liked seeing the album artwork on the watch.

Limited stop/start/next controls on the “now playing” watchOS 4 app are no better than using the headset controls that already exist on my headphones.

I still can’t understand why they would kill this excellent feature.

 

[themick4u]

Exactly this. It’s faster to quickly enter the old music app from watchOS 1-3 and pick new music to play - especially from the recently added list.

I often have my phone charging but could play music from it and choose new music to play from it with watchOS 3.

Often it’s even faster than getting the phone out of my pocket.

On an aesthetic level, I liked seeing the album artwork on the watch.

Limited stop/start/next controls on the “now playing” watchOS 4 app are no better than using the headset controls that already exist on my headphones.

I still can’t understand why they would kill this excellent feature.

For those who want this WELL USED feature back, go to bugreport.apple.com and login (free dev acct) and put in a request to add/change feature! The more of us that protest, the better the chances are they will bring it back.

 

[porkrind]

I’m not sure I follow. I don’t want to stream over WiFi or LTE. I just want to use the watch as a remote for the downloaded songs on the phone as before. I’m only speculating here, but it seems that it would be more energetically costly to have a Bluetooth relay from the phone to the watch and then to headphones. But, maybe I’m wrong.

Here's where I am missing something, as I didn’t have any previous watchOS before this. In the old system, when you started an album from the watch using the music on the phone, was the watch doing the playing, or was the phone doing the playing?

 

[jonnysods]

I couldn't imagine the battery drain on this if I'm out for a 5 hour bike ride using Runkeeper. Yikes!

 

[tcellguy]

Here's where I am missing something, as I didn’t have any previous watchOS before this. In the old system, when you started an album from the watch using the music on the phone, was the watch doing the playing, or was the phone doing the playing?

Phone or watch. You had the option to choose either. The watch served as a (very good) remote for the iPhone, which has a better processor, battery, equalizer, and storage capacity for this task.

 

[porkrind]

Phone or watch. You had the option to choose either. The watch served as a (very good) remote for the iPhone, which has a better processor, battery, equalizer, and storage capacity for this task.

I see, thanks. I wasn't aware that there was an option for people to simply use the watch as a remote control for content that the phone ultimately was playing. I can see where the new solution is unsatisfying for people who used their setup that way.

 

[Tomapple]

Any improivements in battery life?

 

[julesme]

I am surprised by this. I add a song to the playlist that I copy to my watch, and the next days it automatically copied over. It seems automatic and seamless for me. I never think about doing anything extra to get the changes to that playlist to my watch.

The process you are describing (Step 1, isolate a single playlist for use as the ONLY playlist on Watch; Step 2, add songs to your Watch playlist from your phone; Step 3, wait for them to sync to the Watch by "the next day") sounds like something slow and laborious. And then what happens when you're on your run and you decide to listen to something that's not on the single playlist you created for the Watch?

This is the antithesis of seamless. Equally important, Apple realizes it contradicts the core proposition of Apple Music streaming, i.e., that you can stream anything, anytime on demand.

Thus they are changing it, and it's gonna be great. I can't wait to try it, though I will have to upgrade to S3...

 

[QuarterSwede]

You can control the phone with your watch once Music is playing on your phone first. However, you can’t initiate Music like you could before from the music app. Siri will still initiate music though.

Here is a shot from watchOS 4.0.

 

[backontwo]

That is technically correct, but what you can do there is limited to pause, play, skip and adjust volume only after starting the song on the iPhone. On previous versions of WatchOS, you could browse the entire iPhone library to start playing and/or choose a different song all from the watch. You cloud also start a song playing on the iPhone by using Siri on the Watch. This functionality seems to be removed and is a fairly big deal for those of us who like to change songs in the car while keeping our eyes on the road.

Ahh, ok. I thought I was still able to do that, but now that I check it out again, I see I can only do that via the Music app which is the watch instance.