Good news for those of you who use Spotify with a Wear OS watch: Support for offline playback is rolling out to Spotify’s Wear OS app.
The company has confirmed the news after some users on Reddit reported they were already able to use the feature. Keep in mind Spotify also revealed on 11 August 2021 that its Wear OS app will receive offline playback “over the coming weeks". You'll be able to download tunes directly to your Wear OS smartwatch and won't need your phone to do so. This is obviously ideal for runners and those who like to leave their phone behind but still have access to music.
With this new feature, Premium users will be able to download their favorite albums, playlists, and podcasts to listen offline. Free users will be able to stream their tunes in Shuffle Mode using a WiFi or cellular connection, as well as download any of their favorite podcasts directly to the watch.
It's worth noting offline playback for Spotify is already available on Apple Watch.
How to use offline playback in Spotify’s Wear OS app.
According to a Spotify blog, these are the steps to follow:
- From your watch, find the music and podcasts you want to download on your watch.
- Tap Download to watch.
- To check on the progress, go to the Downloads section on your watch.
- You should see the selected playlists, albums, or podcasts in your library.
- When they are downloaded, you’ll see a little green arrow next to their names.
- Connect your headphones and start listening over Wi-Fi or a cellular connection.
Anything else you should know?
Yes. There are some things to keep in mind.
Spotify said your smartwatch will need to run Wear OS 2.0 or newer to use offline playback on Spotify, and only Spotify Premium subscribers are able to download and albums and playlists for offline listening. That said, both paid and free users can download podcasts for offline playback. Free users will be able to stream tunes in Shuffle Mode over a Wi-Fi or cellular connection, beyond being able to download their favourite podcasts to their watch.