What you need to know
- YouTube Music seemingly gained a new sharing ability with the latest update.
- Users can share their favorite audio tracks, albums, and playlists on Instagram Stories.
- The feature looks familiar to what we have seen when sharing from Spotify.
YouTube Music has reportedly received a new social sharing ability. We first heard about this ability back in 2020. The audio platform users might finally be able to share their music, including songs, albums, and playlists, to Instagram Stories, reports 9to5Google.
The report suggests that YouTube Music version 5.23.50 for Android devices allows users to post to the social platform using the Instagram Stories button in the share sheet. Hitting the icon opens the Instagram story page, displaying the respective album art with the YouTube Music track/album/playlist linked at the top left corner.
After users post the respective story on Instagram, their followers can see the album art, and clicking the link at the top allows them to play the track via YouTube Music. This works quite similarly to the Spotify audio/album art sharing capability for Instagram stories.
Back in March, YouTube Music also adopted an identical approach to Snapchat. Users can share YouTube content with their Snapchat friends (through stories) from the apps. And better social sharing is not just limited to music platforms, as Twitter for Android users recently gained direct sharing on other platforms like Snapchat and Instagram Stories.
Until now, YouTube Music users were able to share tracks to Instagram chats, so the latest update is a welcome change, to say the least.
Unfortunately, the new feature appears to be hit-or-miss at the moment. Some Android Central staff have tried the new share option on the latest version of YouTube Music, only to have the app crash. Meanwhile, some others have managed to get it to work.
It looks like it's a phased rollout, with an announcement from either company yet to be seen. That said, 9to5 suggests the rollout has begun for Android users for now. iOS platforms might likely follow down the line in the coming months.
