YouTube Music, everyone’s favorite side effect of getting rid of YouTube’s ads, is getting a nice upgrade in its latest update. Google has been busy adding more and more to its Spotify-alike in recent months, and this latest addition brings it closer than ever to its biggest rival.
With this latest update, version 8.26.51, YouTube Music will allow you to resume listening to tracks on different devices, remembering where you left off and letting you continue from there.
Start on your phone, resume on PC, or vice versa
Device-hopping, across the universe
YouTube Music is a solid music player, but it has been missing a few features you can enjoy on some of its competitors. One of those features is the ability to start playing a track exactly where you left off on another device. You might be familiar with this ability on Spotify, where you can specify which device to resume playback on, as long as they’re all connected to the same network. YouTube Music lacked this feature for a long time — but not any more.
Spotted by the folks over at Android Authority, YouTube Music version 8.26.51 contains a cute little addition to your Speed Dial. As seen in the image above, songs played on other devices now appear with a progress bar beneath, and selecting one allows you to start playing from where you left off. It’s a neat little addition for those people who like to keep tunes pumping when they step away to make a drink.
Don’t get us wrong, it’s nowhere near as good as Spotify‘s cross-device controls. Heck, on Spotify, I can control my smartphone from the Spotify PC app and vice versa. But it is a nice addition for those who use YouTube Music a lot, and may help to keep some people subscribed to the service when YouTube Premium Lite starts making its way into the rest of the world.
The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, as is ever the case with features like this, and while I’m hopeful for it, I’ve often found Speed Dial to be a little random for my tastes. As often as it serves up exactly what I want, it seems to completely miss the songs I’ve been playing over and over again. I’ll be waiting until I pass judgment on this one, but it’s likely to be just a small but helpful addition, and nothing game-changing.
