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Spotify Officially Debuts Apple Watch App, Rolling Out to Everyone Over Coming Week

Tuesday November 13, 2018 6:50 am PST by Mitchel Broussard
Spotify for the Apple Watch is rolling out to all users over the coming week. Announced by the company today, the release follows a beta version of the app that appeared in early November, and comes well over a year since Spotify hired "Snowy" developer Andrew Chang onto its team to help build the app.


Spotify says the app provides users with useful playback controls and the ability to connect to their music speakers and other devices through Spotify Connect. Like Apple Music on Apple Watch, Spotify subscribers will now be able to hit play, pause, skip, and rewind songs by interacting with their Apple Watch.
We’re constantly on the go—whether bouncing between the gym, work, school, errands, or just chilling—and our smartwatches are the tool to help keep us up to speed. Today, Spotify is introducing a new app for the Apple Watch, giving you the ability to seamlessly access and control your favorite music and podcasts without missing a beat.
Additionally, users will be able to access their recently played songs and favorite the currently playing song by tapping the heart icon on the Apple Watch screen. Down the line, Spotify plans to make music and podcasts available to listen offline on Apple Watch, among other updates it hasn't yet announced.

To get the Spotify app for Apple Watch, the company says that users will need to make sure they have the latest version of the Spotify iOS app (8.4.79), and they should begin seeing the Apple Watch version of the app over the next week.

Tag: Spotify
[ 112 comments ]


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mcvaughan
9 months ago
Needs cellular and offline mode to be worth anything.
Rating: 30 Votes
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coolbreeze2
9 months ago
My son is an Apple fan boy except for Apple Music. He says Spotify's ability to equalize sounds plus some other perks makes Spotify better. So he has all Apple gadgets like me but subscribes to Spotify. He is absolutely going to love this new watch app.
Rating: 17 Votes
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penajmz
9 months ago
So... nothing? The now playing app worked for most of what this app does.
Rating: 13 Votes
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OldSchoolMacGuy
9 months ago

Exactly what IS Apple's objection to opening up cellular streaming to developers?


3rd party apps are traditionally horrid at managing usage. When a 3rd party app like Spotify drains your Apple Watch battery and kills your data plan, who gets blamed? Hint: it's not Spotify. Nope, instead people blame Apple and their watch for not having good battery life.

Much of the API access has been rolled out as Apple has found ways to limit the ability of app developers to do real damage. They simply don't think of performance impacts and how their app is just one of many a user utilizes. Instead they only think of their own, making no effort to be good about minimizing resource usage.
Rating: 10 Votes
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rwilliams
9 months ago
Once this allows offline playback, then it will be a worthy addition to Apple Watch.
Next, Apple needs to stop being ridiculous and allow third party apps to use cellular streaming.
Rating: 10 Votes
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edgonzalez32
9 months ago
"Spotify plans to make music and podcasts available to listen offline"

Thank Christ.
Rating: 9 Votes
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nviz22
9 months ago
About time!
Rating: 9 Votes
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Just sayin...
9 months ago
Adding Spotify eliminates my final objection to purchasing an Apple Watch. Looks like I’ll finally be headed down to my local Apple Store to pick one up. Very happy with this latest development. (Caveat: they’re still working on local storage and cellular mode - both necessary for full Spotify functionality)
Rating: 5 Votes
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solipsism
9 months ago

Needs cellular and offline mode to be worth anything.


Don't put the cart before the horse. Cellular and offline mode don't mean **** if there's still no headphone support via the Watch. Let's get that issue resolved first with even a small cache of offline music synched from our iPhone, we then request that streaming and offline modes be available.

[It seems that Apple's new API for watchOS 5 doesn't allow for cellular or WiFI streaming. ]
Rating: 5 Votes
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edgonzalez32
9 months ago

Needs cellular and offline mode to be worth anything.

Says it's coming in a future update.
Rating: 5 Votes

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