Ahead of the Play Music shutdown, Google has been working to add key functionality to the YouTube-based alternative, especially for free users. The YouTube Music app for Android Auto now works to play uploaded tracks.
YouTube Music’s Android Auto and CarPlay apps have always required a paid Music Premium or Premium membership to access. Zero functionality was previously available to free users. For example, there’s no free, ad-filled radio like on the mobile clients.
Now, those users can access and play their uploaded tracks. This was a glaring feature omission in the past and a big incentive to pay for the monthly subscription. Your library will now appear and can be browsed. Google Assistant voice commands also work to find and start playback.
This comes as the free tier in recent weeks started letting you cast uploaded songs to Assistant smart speakers and download playlists with user-content for offline playback.
As of today, this YouTube Music feature is widely rolled out on both car head units and Android Auto on phone screens.
More about YouTube Music:
- YouTube Music still doesn’t work for kids with Google Play Music set to shut down any day now
- YouTube Music gets simple Apple Watch app before Wear OS client
- YouTube Music on Android TV gets library & uploads access, UI tweaks, background play coming
- YouTube Music tests playlist setting to filter out liked videos from main service
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