Spotify comes to Wear OS with a standalone application, Spotify Connect support

Wear OS is gaining a new popular app that many have been waiting for since Spotify announced plans to bring a standalone mobile application to Google's smart watch platform.

Spotify's stand-alone application lets you browse and control the music on your wrist. It seems like it's a lighter version of Spotify's mobile app, allowing you to browse your tracks and playlists and quickly save songs to your library. You can also control playback from your wrist. This is similar to Wear OS native music controls integrated into a dedicated Spotify application.

The Wear OS app also integrates with Spotify Connect, the method used by the company to connect and control playback on Bluetooth devices. Now from your wrist, you can manage the connections between Bluetooth speakers, laptops and other devices and quickly change the source of playback.

The Spotify Wear OS application uses all available connectivity, including Wi-Fi, LTE and Bluetooth, to play music. Unlike the Tizen Spotify app, the Wear OS app does not support downloading music for offline playback. This will inevitably disappoint owners of Wear OS smartwatches with enough on-board memory to hold a few playlists.

When asked about offline support, Spotify told Ars: "We are delighted to launch a standalone Spotify application for Google's Smartwatches Wear OS, which is the first version of the application and is we will continue to improve the Spotify experience. " Although this remains vague, it suggests the possibility of adding offline assistance in the future.

Earlier this month, Spotify brought its stand-alone application to Garmin Fenix ​​5. As with the Tizen app, Garmin's Spotify app allows Garmin's high-end smartwatch owners to download and play music directly from the device on their wrists via connected Bluetooth headphones.

Since Wear OS joined the group, the main remaining apparel platforms are Fitbit OS and Apple's watchOS operating software. Fitbit smart watches can currently download and play personal files as well as Pandora and Deezer playlists (paying subscribers only). All Apple Watch owners can download iTunes music for offline listening, and those who own an LTE-compatible watch can stream songs from Apple Music. The Now Playing app on Apple Watches allows users to control the playback of their Spotify smartphone, but there is no Spotify dedicated application for watchOS and Spotify Premium users can not download of music for offline listening.

It is likely that Spotify associates with Fitbit before associating with Apple. Apple's recent strategy uses its hardware to promote its software and services: to make Apple Music the only source of music on Apple Watch fits into this strategy. Apple already limits its HomePod to $ 350 to music sources that are primarily owned by Apple.

Spotify is partnering with Fossil Group to pre-install the stand-alone application on all Fossil Gen 4 and Michael Kors Access Runway smartwatches that will be released starting in November. The Spotify app will be deployed to all other Wear OS users over the coming week.