How to play music on your smartwatch

For many, music is an integral part of their workout. However, not everyone wants to spin their cell phone around while hitting a trail or sweating. That’s where smartwatches come in very handy. Almost every smartwatch can control the music on your mobile phone, but quite a few smartwatches can also play music on your device.

Whether it’s an Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, Garmin, Fitbit, or Wear OS watch, there are plenty of options for listening to music. Many depend on the services supported and the OS on which the watch is running. Some have the option of playing offline via either downloadable playlists or onboard music storage. If your smartwatch has LTE, you can also stream music directly to your wrist.

Keep in mind that not all smartwatches have speakers, so you may need Bluetooth headphones. Also, downloading playlists for offline playback will almost certainly require a subscription to the music service of your choice. That doesn’t mean you can’t listen to music for free. You can, but the option without a phone is much more limited.

Here’s a breakdown of the key players by platform and how to get started listening.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

First, you need to make sure you’re using Apple Watch Series 3 or later running the latest version of watchOS. You can listen to music on Series 2, but you cannot install the latest OS version. Apple has stopped supporting watchOS 7. Also, Series 2 is 5 years old, so you may not have a good experience.You may check If you have the latest information on watchOS Go to the Watch app on your iPhone and[全般],[ソフトウェアアップデート]Select in the order of.

As you can imagine, the easiest way to stream music on your Apple Watch is to use Apple Music. Not only is it pre-installed on your watch, but if you have an LTE watch with an Apple Music subscription, you can stream it directly to your wrist. All you have to do is ask Siri to play the artist or song title. You can also browse the library directly from the Clock Music app. If you don’t have an LTE watch, you have the option to download playlists for offline playback.

You can also access the clock app on your phone and scroll down to the Music app menu to load playlists and albums from there. This could be an easier option if you want to set it up on a larger screen.

In addition, Apple has a number of third-party apps in case you’re already subscribed to another service. After years of customer complaints, Spotify has added support for offline playlists and downloads on the Apple Watch. Simply go to the App Store on your wrist, download the Spotify app and log in. As long as you add “on Spotify” to the end of your request, Spotify will work with Siri as well.

Apple Music and Spotify are the two most popular music apps on the Apple Watch, but there are many other options. Pandora and Deezer also support offline playlists. If you like radio, there are also apps like TuneIn and iHeart Radio. If you want to listen to podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and Apple Podcasts are also suitable.

Keep in mind that not all third-party Apple Watch apps are created the same. Some work perfectly, while others are not specifically optimized for a great watch experience. Also, not all apps support offline playback and often require a subscription.

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

If you have Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 or Watch 4 Classic, skip to the Wear OS section below. If you’re still using a Tizen OS watch, the process is a bit different.

Spotify was one of the few partner apps available on Tizen watches, but it’s been a while since it was updated. (Given that Samsung is all-in to Wear OS, it may not be updated.) Users are complaining about the poor experience on the forums, so we don’t recommend using this app.

Many of Samsung’s older Tizen watches (Galaxy Watch 3, Galaxy Watch Active and Active 2, Galaxy Watch, etc.) have onboard storage so you can load music files directly.

How Android users can add music via the Galaxy wearable app:

• Load the songs you need on your phone
• strike Clock settings after that Manage content Also Add content to your watch
• Tap Add a track
• Select the required file or all Located in the upper left corner.
• If you hit end You can play music on your watch via the Music app.

iOS users must be running at least iOS 12 on iPhone 6 or later.

• Load the songs you need on your phone
• Open Galaxy Watch app
• Go to House Bottom left tab
• select Add content to your watch

Samsung supports MP3, M4A, AAC, OGG, and WMA files. However, you can’t export music from streaming services such as Spotify or Google Play that use encrypted files.

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

If you have a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 or Watch 4 Classic, this is easy. These watches are the first (and only so far) watches to run Wear OS 3. This means that you can use the Google Play Store right away.

Currently, the best app choices are Spotify and YouTube Music, both of which support offline playback. (However, you must be a paid subscriber.) Android users can also physically load music onto their watch by following the steps outlined in the previous section. However, Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic do not support iOS.

Currently, Wear OS watches other than Samsung are running Wear OS 2. This will continue until you get a new batch of Wear OS watches or Google finally releases an update later this year.

For some time, Wear OS 2 users didn’t really have the right option to listen to music after Google closed Google Play Music. It’s no longer the case. The Spotify app now also supports streaming and offline playlists on WearOS 2 watches. Google has finally introduced YouTube Music to Wear OS 2. Please note that a subscription is required, only offline downloads are possible, no streaming is possible.

To get started:

• Go to Google Play Store
• download YouTube music On your watch
• Login To your YouTube music account
• Tap the song or playlist you want to download
• Press the download icon

Photo courtesy of Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The easiest way to listen to music on your Fitbit smartwatch is to use Spotify, Deezer, or Pandora.

The Spotify app is like a music control app. Offline playback isn’t supported, so your smartphone must be nearby with the Fitbit app running in the background and connected to the internet. You also need a Spotify premium account.

Pandora and Deezer are preloaded on the Fitbit Ionic (recently recalled), Sense, and Versa series (except Versa Lite). You need a paid subscription to one of the services, as well as a Wi-Fi connection. Deezer users can download playlists, and Pandora users can download the most played stations or the most popular and selected workout stations.

You can also use the Fitbit Connect app to transfer your own files to your device (the only exceptions are Fitbit Sense, Versa Lite Edition, and Versa 3). You can download the app for free here. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Fair Warning: This is the tedious process that Fitbit outlined in “How do I download playlists to my Fitbit watch?”. section. After expanding that section, scroll down to the Mac or Windows drop-down menu to see the steps.

Photo by Victoria Song / Zavage

Garmin currently supports four major music streaming services: Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, and iHeart Radio. You can download all apps from the Connect IQ store. (Again, you need a subscription.) However, once you’ve downloaded the app in question, go to the Music / Media widget on your watch. From there, you can select the service of your choice and you will be prompted to log in to your account. Once that’s done, you can start syncing your music and playlists.

Most Garmin watches come with music storage. You can check the list here. However, like Fitbits, loading your personal library into your watch can be a tedious process. Download the Garmin Express app to your computer and from there, follow Garmin’s detailed instructions on how to manage music and audio files for both Mac and Windows users.

Correction, March 9, 2022, 9:30 am ET: In previous versions of this article, Spotify’s offline playlists were incorrectly listed and streaming wasn’t available on WearOS 2. We apologize for the error.