Modern technology can be ground-breaking, sometimes jaw-dropping. Downloading music to a watch so you can listen to it with Bluetooth headphones isn’t either of those things, yet it’s taken Spotify this long to get that feature to work on its Apple Watch app.
In an update to the app, Spotify has finally brought the ability to sync music to your watch for offline listening, a feature that’s extremely limited on smartwatches outside of first-party solutions like Apple Music. Previously, the only thing you could do with the Spotify app on your wrist was stream music from your account and control playback of Spotify on other devices.
Spotify offered up some instructions on how to use the feature in a blog post.
1. Find the music and podcasts you want to download on your watch.
2. Select the playlist, album, or podcast and press the three dots (…) and choose “Download to Apple Watch.”
3. To check on the progress, head over to the Downloads section on the watch.
4. Once playlists, albums, or podcasts in your library are downloaded, you’ll see a little green arrow next to their names.
5. Connect your headphones and start listening, no matter where you are!
Obviously, you’ll need a Spotify Premium subscription to use the feature. The company also says you’ll need an Apple Watch Series 3 or later running at least watchOS 6.0. You’ll also need to make sure you have the latest version of Spotify on your iPhone.
Why’d it take Spotify this long to ship this feature? I really couldn’t tell you. Apple hasn’t put any roadblocks in the way of developers letting you download music to listen to offline on your watch, nor has it demanded Apple Music be the exclusive music streaming app on your wrist. I suppose the feature was low on Spotify’s priority list, which is a shame considering how simple it is.
Admittedly, you probably won’t wanna use the feature on a Series 3 Apple Watch. It only comes with 8GB of storage which… isn’t enough. If you have other apps on your watch or you like to keep it updated when new software ships, you’ll find yourself clearing out all that saved music to make extra room. Regardless, at least those who want the feature can use it now.
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