Spotify Officially Debuts Apple Watch App, Rolling Out to Everyone Over Coming Week

[MacRumors]

Spotify for the Apple Watch is rolling out to all users over the coming week. Announced by the company today, the release follows a beta version of the app that appeared in early November, and comes well over a year since Spotify hired "Snowy" developer Andrew Chang onto its team to help build the app.

Spotify says the app provides users with useful playback controls and the ability to connect to their music speakers and other devices through Spotify Connect. Like Apple Music on Apple Watch, Spotify subscribers will now be able to hit play, pause, skip, and rewind songs by interacting with their Apple Watch.

We're constantly on the go--whether bouncing between the gym, work, school, errands, or just chilling--and our smartwatches are the tool to help keep us up to speed. Today, Spotify is introducing a new app for the Apple Watch, giving you the ability to seamlessly access and control your favorite music and podcasts without missing a beat.

Additionally, users will be able to access their recently played songs and favorite the currently playing song by tapping the heart icon on the Apple Watch screen. Down the line, Spotify plans to make music and podcasts available to listen offline on Apple Watch, among other updates it hasn't yet announced.

To get the Spotify app for Apple Watch, the company says that users will need to make sure they have the latest version of the Spotify iOS app (8.4.79), and they should begin seeing the Apple Watch version of the app over the next week.

Article Link: Spotify Officially Debuts Apple Watch App, Rolling Out to Everyone Over Coming Week

 

[Aston441]

TuneIn and Amazon Music and iHeart and etc I hope do the same very soon.

Spotify and Apple Music are the two services I have zero interest in.

 

[nviz22]

About time!

 

[coolbreeze2]

My son is an Apple fan boy except for Apple Music. He says Spotify's ability to equalize sounds plus some other perks makes Spotify better. So he has all Apple gadgets like me but subscribes to Spotify. He is absolutely going to love this new watch app.

 

[mcvaughan]

Needs cellular and offline mode to be worth anything.

 

[penajmz]

So... nothing? The now playing app worked for most of what this app does.

 

[thespazz]

So... nothing? The now playing app worked for most of what this app does.

No it didn't. Not even close.

 

[edgonzalez32]

"Spotify plans to make music and podcasts available to listen offline"

Thank Christ.

 

[famoussasjohn]

TuneIn and Amazon Music and iHeart and etc I hope do the same very soon.

Spotify and Apple Music are the two services I have zero interest in.

Tidal too. I have Sprint and it's included free in my plan and would love to have it available on my watch.

 

[edgonzalez32]

Needs cellular and offline mode to be worth anything.

Says it's coming in a future update.

 

[Just sayin...]

Adding Spotify eliminates my final objection to purchasing an Apple Watch. Looks like I’ll finally be headed down to my local Apple Store to pick one up. Very happy with this latest development. (Caveat: they’re still working on local storage and cellular mode - both necessary for full Spotify functionality)

 

[rwilliams]

Once this allows offline playback, then it will be a worthy addition to Apple Watch.
Next, Apple needs to stop being ridiculous and allow third party apps to use cellular streaming.

 

[Ultramove69]

It’s awesome when people post what services they hate clumping Spotify into this. Today’s post is about 3rd party streaming support increasing, this is something to get excited about.

 

[rwilliams]

Exactly what IS Apple's objection to opening up cellular streaming to developers?

 

[solipsism]

Has anyone been able to get headphones paired with the Watch to work with this app? I've only ever had it work as a remote control for Spotify for other devices.

 

[co.ag.2005]

So... nothing? The now playing app worked for most of what this app does.

yes and no. I can actually pick the google home device I want to cast my spotify music to and the playlist I want from my watch. You can't do this from the now playing app. This is very handy when on the floor playing with the kiddos and my phone is off on the table or counter. But it would be nice to have offline storage and LTE streaming... it'll get there... unless apple is purposefully not letting them do it.

 

[techfreak23]

It’s about time, but not quite what I was expecting, especially after 3 YEARS. It still doesn’t look like this lets you browse through your playlists... I could be wrong though

 

[GadgetBen]

Now, I just need Sonos to bring out an Apple Watch app.

 

[ELman]

Says it's coming in a future update.

Let's hope so. I assume it's a restriction put in place by Apple. Tune in Radio also requires your phone to be nearby for it to work. It would be nice to steam to my cellular watch without my phone nearby.

 

[kruegdude]

Good luc

Adding Spotify eliminates my final objection to purchasing an Apple Watch. Looks like I’ll finally be headed down to my local Apple Store to pick one up. Very happy with this latest development. (Caveat: they’re still working on local storage and cellular mode - both necessary for full Spotify functionality)

Good luck with that. The lead time for the Apple Watch 4 is about 2 weeks.

 

[JRobinsonJr]

Exactly what IS Apple's objection to opening up cellular streaming to developers?

I can easily imagine a scenario where Apple worked with the major carriers - particularly in the US - as part of the effort to get the limited price coverage. That would likely have included some agreement that the majority of traffic would be over the primary device (phone) with the watch as a secondary. Carriers would want to know that adding n Watch would not substantively increase overall traffic. Allowing all 3rd party apps to use the cellular connection could create a scenario where both the watch and the phone were using significant traffic. Might be totally wrong, but this makes sense to me.

 

[FairlyKors]

My son is an Apple fan boy except for Apple Music. He says Spotify's ability to equalize sounds plus some other perks makes Spotify better. So he has all Apple gadgets like me but subscribes to Spotify. He is absolutely going to love this new watch app.

Your son is correct. The equalizer that’s built in to Spotify is excellent. I’ve used Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal Hi-Fi (the expensive higher quality version)— and I like Spotify the best.

The EQ has 5 settings which keeps it both easy and useful. I have pairs of headphones that either have a little too much bass, or too much treble, and a little tweak of the EQ fixes that. (It’s not as nerdy or difficult as it may sound.)

Some of my favorite albums were also mixed a little strangely, and if I’m feeling particularly anal, I might adjust the EQ to better fit an album.

Apple Music, like many current Apple interfaces is stripped down and “minimal” to the point that it feels kind of stupid. I understand wanting to keep the UI clean and uncluttered, but Apple keeping sound modification so simple that in place of an EQ (that you could screw up! /s) you get presets like “Rock” or “Classical”— and like all EQ presents I found them worthless.

 

[ThatGuyInLa]

Anyone else still find it incredibly annoying you can’t use the Apple Watch(celluar) music app directly to play music to your cars bluetooth? It only works using Siri on the watch. Then it will tell your iPhone to play, which in is connected to your car. Why on Earth when manually using the app it won’t and requests you to connect a device!?

Will Spotify app have this same glitch?

 

[kyleh22]

Can I listen to music - Bluetooth headphones - without my iPhone? It would be great to leave my phone at home and still have music.

 

[joueboy]

If this app cannot play an offline music what good it's gonna do to majority of Apple Watch users. Obviously, Apple puts limitations on the competition for their advantage.