Spotify App for Wear OS Brings Offline Listening on Smartwatch

BY Mahit Huilgol

Published 12 Aug 2021

One of the most significant advantages of owning a smartwatch is offline music playback. This way, you don’t have to carry your phone along to the run or during workouts in the gym. Android smartwatch running WearOS allowed users to access offline music via Google Music. With the death of Google Music, the wearOS lacked a music service that offers offline listening. Spotify has finally decided to fill the void with offline support on Wear OS.

The Spotify app on Wear OS can run without your phone. Previously you could only control media playback between devices. With Wear OS, you will finally be able to stream music and podcast. Furthermore, the Spotify app on smartwatch also lets you download and playback media offline. This is something that will come in handy if your watch doesn’t offer cellular connectivity.

The app also lets you choose a music source. In other words, you can use Spotify Connect to switch playback between multiple devices within the smartwatch. Interestingly, Spotify offline support first arrived on Apple Watch early this year. Premium Spotify users will be able to stream directly on the Wear OS alongside offline features. Meanwhile, free users will be able to stream their music but only in Shuffle Mode.

Apart from music and podcast, the app lets you control playback for wireless speakers, TVs, or even gaming consoles.

How to download offline music on the Spotify Wear OS app

  • Open the app and select music and podcast that you want to download on the watch.
  • Select “Download to watch.”
  • The content will appear on your watch Downloads section.
  • Once the download is complete, you will see a green arrow against the tune.
  • Please note that your smartwatch should be running Wear OS 2.0 or above for this feature to work.
[via Spotify]