One-touch offline playback? Yes, please
It’s no secret that YouTube Music has been fighting an uphill battle to win over fans of the old Google Play Music. Over time we’ve seen lots of little improvements hit the service, and while few individually have been of the blockbuster variety, their sum total has resulted in an experience that checks more boxes than ever. Now YTM’s journey on the road to redemption continues with the addition of a new “Downloads” shortcut to the Android app.
The new option seems to have started appearing with the 4.63 build of YouTube Music, as spotted by 9to5Google — a server-side switch may be involved here, as it doesn’t seem to be showing for everyone just yet. Once available, long-pressing the YouTube Music icon from your home screen or app drawer will display the new option, which you can tap on to quickly start the app shuffling through your locally-stored tracks. Even better, as with all Android app shortcuts, you can drag it right onto your home screen, where a single tap will get the tunes playing for you.
You may recall a similar shortcut, “Offline Mixtape,” which disappeared from the Android app last summer. This new option seems to be a bit broader, supporting playback of not only the offline content that’s stored on your device thanks to YouTube Music’s “Smart downloads” feature, but also any music that you have manually selected for offline playback.
The added shortcut is one of many recent YouTube Music enhancements, including improved parental controls, better radio station recommendations, and a slick new “Add to playlist” UI.
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