Google Assistant on Android now lets you play personal YouTube Music playlists

Abner Li | Oct 4 2020 - 9:00 am PT

Google Play Music is set to stop working for users around the world starting this month. YouTube Music continues to add legacy features to ease the transition, with Google Assistant now working to play personal playlists.

Personal playlists are those created and maintained by users. It’s an incredibly common task, but Google Assistant has not been able to start playback on them for the majority of YouTube Music’s existence. (Collections generated by YouTube have long been accessible through voice.)

That changed in August when Google started limited testing on “Nest speakers and smart displays in the United States.” It promised “plans to roll out to more countries and devices in the future.”

A little under two months later, there are many reports of Google Assistant on Android phones and tablets working to start a personal playlist in YouTube Music: “Hey Google, play X playlist” or “Ok Google, play X.”

Appending “playlist” at the end of your voice command looks to be optional, but you definitely do not need to specify the YouTube Music app/service, especially if it’s the default. “Your Likes” can also be accessed in this manner. Users can confirm this origin by visiting the in-app Playlists page.

It works on my Android device stateside, while there’s a thread on international availability noting the same. This is extremely long overdue and hopefully not an A/B test. The voice interaction is absolutely key to making YouTube Music a viable replacement offering.