YouTube Music doesn’t work on old Wear OS watches

If you bought a Wear OS watch in the past, there’s a good chance the YouTube Music app won’t work on your wearable right now. Google announced the new Wear OS 3 at I/O 2021, as well as the arrival of YouTube Music to Wear. However, watches with Wear OS 2 are now out in the cold: Google developed the app specifically for Wear OS 3, so it can’t run on older Wear OS 2.

YouTube Music for Wear OS

Google announced the arrival youtube music Wear OS (3) has been welcomed with open arms by customers of the music streaming service. After years of controlling music from their phone, it is now possible to transfer it to their watch. That sounds a bit more complicated later, according to reports from 9to5Google. Google has confirmed that new Wear apps – including YouTube Music and Google Maps – will not be available for the older Wear OS 2. It was hoped that sideloading would provide a solution.

Those hopes were driven by Spotify’s new Wear OS app, which also works on older Wear OS 2 watches. In retrospect, it turns out that this hope was in vain. report from 9to5Google It describes how they tried to install the YouTube Music APK for Galaxy Watch 4, which runs on Wear OS 3, on a Motorola Moto 360. However, an error in the ADB terminal used to install the app quickly terminated the exercise. The bug also shows Google’s limitations on older Wear OS watches.

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YouTube Music for Wear OS requires API level 30 or higher. However, Wear OS watches running on Wear OS 2 are still based on level 28 of the API (Android 9.0 Pie). As a result, the app cannot technically be installed. Security researcher linuxct deletes YouTube Music app To make it fit later For API level 28, but due to issues with ‘signing’ the app it was not possible to login and the app is still unusable.

Wear OS 3 watches on the road

Unfortunately, consumers who currently own a Wear OS watch, with the exception of the Galaxy Watch 4, will not be able to use Google’s YouTube Music app. Your Wear OS watch may receive an update to Wear OS 3 at a later time. Mobvoi and Fossil, the two makers with the largest selection of Wear OS watches, have confirmed their desire to provide some smartwatches with Wear OS 3 updates. OS 2 watches will be released in the second half of 2022.

As for the launch of new Wear OS watches with Wear OS 3: it doesn’t seem to exist at the moment. Fossil has already indicated that it will launch its Gen 6 smartwatches with Wear OS 2 and upgrade to Wear OS 3 later. It is not known if other manufacturers will start working with Wear OS 3 before the end of this year.

Do you want to install the YouTube Music app on your smartwatch, or are you OK with having to launch the streaming service from your phone? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.