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Latest Google Play Music update adds settings for download and Wi-Fi streaming quality

With the last update adding ‘Recents‘ to the navigation drawer, the latest version of Google Play Music brings the ability to set audio quality when streaming over Wi-Fi, as well as when downloading music for offline access.

Under ‘Playback’ in Settings, there is a new option to set the “Quality on wifi network.” Previously, users only had the ability to set streaming preferences when on cellular networks.

By default, it is set to ‘Always High,’ which plays the best quality in all network conditions, but with the possibility of buffering. There are also three other options to select from: Low, Normal, and High. The option to force ‘Always High’ has also been added to settings for mobile network streaming.

Meanwhile, “Download quality” under ‘Downloading’ also has three options. The default is set to Normal, with ‘Low’ being quite useful for storage constrained devices. The app does not clearly specify how much compression saves or what happens to already downloaded music.

These options first surfaced a few versions back as part of an A/B test for certain users. However, version 7.5 of Play Music enables it on all devices.

Version 7.5.4518 for Android is rolling out now via the Play Store.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com