YouTube Music for Wear OS fully supports podcasts

Abner Li | Apr 28 2023 - 10:56 am PT

Podcasts in YouTube Music officially launched in the US yesterday, and playback is supported by the Wear OS app.

When you open YouTube Music for Wear OS to the Downloads page, scroll down to the bottom and tap Library. “Podcasts” now appears at the very bottom of this list after Last played, Playlists, Albums, Songs, Artists, and Subscriptions.

Be sure you’ve updated to version 5.54 of YouTube Music for Wear OS, which was released yesterday afternoon, using the on-watch Play Store.

You will see any shows you’re subscribed to, as well as auto-playlists for New Episodes and Episodes for Later. Selecting a podcast will display a list of available episodes with cover art.

You’ll then have the option to stream or download to your wearable, which is one advantage of devices like the Pixel Watch that have 32GB of storage. The Now Playing gives you 10-second rewind and 30-second forward buttons; there’s no sleep timer or the ability to control playback speed.

YouTube Music gives Wear OS users another podcasts app besides smaller indie ones and Spotify. Meanwhile, Pocket Casts is actively developing their watch app.

YouTube Podcasts in the Music is currently only live in the US, but it’s coming to other countries later.