YouTube Music for Wear OS now lets you browse inside albums, playlists

Abner Li | Aug 18 2023 - 3:46 pm PT

A notable update to YouTube Music for Wear OS lets you actually browse the songs in a playlist or album.

Since launch, selecting an album or playlist in the YouTube Music Wear OS app would take users to a barebones page with just the name and two buttons: download and play. The latter started playback in order, and finding a particular track required a lot of skipping.

Now, that same page lists all songs, allowing you to select and play a particular one. To liven things up, blurred album artwork appears in the background.

When selecting a song from a playlist, your queue becomes that playlist, which is what happens on phones.

Old vs. new

However, if you pick a track from an album, it basically starts a radio station, and the next expected song in said album does not play. This behavior is somewhat weird and unexpected. If you want to play an entire album, select the shuffle button, which replaced play as part of this update.

Radio should not be the default behavior. If YouTube Music is sticking with that, the shuffle option should be replaced by ordered playback.

We’re seeing this browse capability rolled out with version 6.15 of YouTube Music for Wear OS. Overall, this is a great addition to the watch client that makes it significantly more powerful.