YouTube Music on Wear OS finally lets you stream over Wi-Fi and LTE

What you need to know

• Google previously teased the ability to stream music on the YouTube Music Wear OS app.
• The functionality is rolling out this week, allowing users to stream over LTE or Wi-Fi instead of downloading for offline listening.
• Google also highlights its new Wear OS tile for quick access to recently played tunes.

Fans were excited when YouTube Music finally landed on Wear OS, but the app has been limited to offline playback only, forcing users to download playlists. However, that's finally changing this week thanks to a new update that will finally enable streaming support.

Google announced in a community post on Tuesday that YouTube Music on Wear OS is gaining new features this week that should make the app much less of a hassle to use. Of course, streaming support is a substantial functional improvement that Google and Samsung teased earlier this year. It should make it easier to jam to new tunes while out and about, particularly for the best Wear OS watches with LTE support. Users will also be able to stream over Wi-Fi; that way, they don't have to rely on Smart Downloads to listen to select playlists offline.

Of course, streaming over LTE or Wi-Fi risks draining your battery faster, but it's nice to have the option. Other apps like Spotify have already offered this functionality on their apps, so it's great to see Google's own music streaming app catching up.

In addition to streaming, Wear OS watches are now gaining a new YouTube Music tile. It's already been spotted on some Galaxy Watch 4 devices but not on our Fossil or Skagen watches. However, the announcement indicates a wide rollout is underway, so it's likely only a matter of time. This new tile gives users quick access to their recently played tunes as well as quick access to the app itself via a "Browse" button.