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Google Says Bug Caused Apple Music to Appear in Google Home App [Updated]

Wednesday February 27, 2019 7:07 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple Music's brief appearance in the Google Home app earlier this week was due to a software bug, a Google spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg.

Specifically, we've been told that the Google Assistant and Google Home apps share various settings for music services. Due to a bug, Google opened up the Apple Music setting more broadly than it intended, including to Google Home app users.


In an earlier statement, a Google spokesperson said "Apple Music is currently only available for Google Assistant users on mobile phones. We have nothing to announce regarding updates to Google Home."

Back in December, Apple Music became available on Amazon's range of Echo speakers, so there was hope that the service would be expanding to Google Home speakers too. Many other music services are available on Google Home, including Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, Google Play Music, and YouTube Music.

Of course, Apple Music could launch on Google Home eventually, and the two companies could be simply hiding their tracks.

Apple Music is currently available on iOS, Android, Apple Watch, Apple TV, HomePod, and Amazon Echo and Sonos speakers. Apple Music can also be controlled with the Google Assistant app on iOS devices.

Tags: Google, Apple Music Guide, Google Home
[ 27 comments ]


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cmaier
20 weeks ago
Yep. Someone tripped and knocked a cup of pens over onto the keyboard, and they just happened to edit the source code to add this functionality.
Rating: 17 Votes
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gwhizkids
20 weeks ago
Can you say "Google violated an NDA?" ;)
Rating: 12 Votes
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velocityg4
20 weeks ago

('https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/27/apple-music-in-google-home-app-was-bug/')
In an earlier statement, a Google spokesperson said "Apple Music is currently only available for Google Assistant users on mobile phones. We have nothing to announce regarding updates to Google Home."


In other words someone let the cat out of the bag but they can't admit it.
Rating: 11 Votes
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cmaier
20 weeks ago

Exactly.... someone got a few variables wrong and hey presto, accidentally coded an Apple Music service interface


One time I was writing a fart app, and I screwed up and accidentally coded an operating system. Was a real pain fixing that.
Rating: 10 Votes
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mi7chy
20 weeks ago
Strange that Google bug adds useful features while Apple bug invades your privacy contrary to what people normally preach.
Rating: 3 Votes
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busuan
20 weeks ago
Good bug...
Rating: 2 Votes
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P_Devil
20 weeks ago
That's disappointing, I was hoping Apple would open up their music service to Google's assistant platform (beyond the phone). I still think something might be up but Apple might be holding out for their rumored March presentation.
Rating: 1 Votes
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MrGimper
20 weeks ago

Yep. Someone tripped and knocked a cup of pens over onto the keyboard, and they just happened to edit the source code to add this functionality.


Exactly.... someone got a few variables wrong and hey presto, accidentally coded an Apple Music service interface
Rating: 1 Votes
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centauratlas
20 weeks ago
All the Bloomberg article states is: "We have nothing to announce regarding updates to Google Home".
I didn't see any mention of a "bug" in that article.

In other words, a non-denial denial.
Rating: 1 Votes
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cmaier
20 weeks ago

You guys are all missing something. Google Assistant in the Google app on phones has had Apple Music as a supported music service for about a year. The Google Home and Google Home app do not support Apple Music, but some portions of the Google Home app, like the music service picker, share code with the Google app, so this really could be a bug caused by accidentally getting a single variable wrong.

Yeah, but that explanation isn’t as funny as mine.
Rating: 1 Votes

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