- YouTube Music now syncs your playback progress across devices you’re signed into, similar to Spotify Connect
- Users could continue music playback after switching between mobile and web versions, but this new upgrade expands on that
- Now that YouTube Music has rolled this tool out it leaves Apple Music as the only service that doesn’t offer playback syncing, and users have been airing their thoughts
Google is finally fixing an annoying YouTube Music issue that users have been begging for, and now the music streaming platform syncs your playback queue across other Android and iOS devices – a tool that Apple Music has yet to roll out.
What does this mean for YouTube Music subscribers? Well, similar to tools such as Spotify Connect, your YouTube Music playback queue will now be synced with other devices that you’re signed into, so that you can pick up where you left off hassle-free and continue enjoying your favorite tunes. It’s a godsend if you switch between devices for music streaming.
Previously, the Now Playing queue on Android and iOS was independent, meaning that if you wanted to continue your listening session from a new device, then you’d have to manually build your queue again from scratch – a huge inconvenience if you ask me. With that said, YouTube Music started improving its queue syncing features back in 2024, allowing the web version to load your playback queue from your mobile.
When you switch devices to resume playback, you’ll find the last song you streamed in the miniplayer – so if you were listening to YouTube Music on a Google Pixel Phone and you swap over to an iPad for example, it will resume your queue there. Once you make the switch, you’ll find temporary “From your iPhone” and “From your browser” placeholders for artist names which will disappear when you press play.
It marks a huge quality of life upgrade for YouTube Music users, and it’s about time too, as its music streaming competitors have already jumped on similar bandwagons – with the exception of Apple Music that is.
‘I’m thinking of seriously switching back to Spotify’
Apple Music has many benefits over the likes of Spotify and YouTube Music. It’s one of the best music streaming services for audio quality, supporting Dolby Atmos on a range of albums, and its collection of radio stations and editorial playlists are built with music fans in mind.
It wins in so many areas, however it still hasn’t quite hit the nail on the head when it comes to queue syncing across devices, and since YouTube Music’s latest upgrade it’s ruffled a few feathers with Apple Music subscribers.
As it stands, there’s no means of syncing your playback queue or song progress across devices where you’re logged into Apple Music, requiring you to search for the song you streamed last and rebuild the queue entirely.
While there are many reasons music fans are sticking with Apple Music, recent comments reveal that if there’s one setback that’s enough to tempt users to switch back to Spotify, it’s this one, especially now that there are so many ways to stream music.
It’s not new that music streaming dominates the way a large number of us consume music today and the tech we stream it though – I frequently switch between my phone, smart speaker, and smart TV to enjoy listening to music, and I don’t know where I’d be without Spotify Connect.
Since covering all things music streaming, this is the first time I’m seeing users actively considering switching from Apple Music to other platforms, when it’s usually the other way around. But whether or not they go through with it is another matter.
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
