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[iOS] Apple Watch: Spotify Streaming and Offline Listening

Apple Watch: Offline Listening

 

watchOS 5 should allow Spotify to develop an app that allows offline listening and streaming via cellular data.

 

Vote here to show your support for this development!

Updated on 2021-07-20

Hey everyone,

Thanks for coming to the Spotify Idea Exchange and voting to make this happen.

Тhis has been one of our most upvoted ideas and we've known it's something that our users would really like to see come true. 
We're happy to announce that this feature will now become available for the Apple Watch Series 3 or later.


It will be gradually rolled out, so it might take a bit until everybody has access to it.  That being said, we'd like to let you know that the roll-out rate has increased a lot in the last weeks, so if you haven't received the feature in the past, try reinstalling the app on your watch again and there's a big chance you'll get Offline listening now.

Once again, thanks for helping us make Spotify better and voting to make this happen, here on the Community.

Comments
krispy4

I shouldn’t have to feel this way but I’m kind of glad that their podcast strategy isn’t working as well as they’d hoped. Should bring them down to earth to realize that people aren’t going to flock over to Spotify just for the name or just for podcasts. People will go to the service that treats them best.

And I recommend everyone take a deep look and really figure out if Spotify is worth it for you. Because they’ve already figured out that you Apple Watch subscribers are not worth it to them.

campiador

Either do it or explain why not. I’m this close to switching to Apple Music because of this.

jmf18

Switching to Apple Music over this

mlomeli0809

Now that i recently purchased an iwatch6, i've been researching how i can add my offline playlist to the iwatch6 since i'm a premium user. I love the offline feature as I like to go on runs/hikes and NO ONE LIKES TO CARRY A PHONE WHILE ON A RUN. This would be great since iwatch6 has 32GB of memory allocation. 

danverbiest

If everyone actually just moved to Apple Music Spotify might actually care enough to do something about this

They don’t seem bothered about it to implement it so just leave people. You have the money they want and the power to leave them

franky247

Welcome to the club mlomeli0809. Yes, no one wants to carry a phone when running. In my case it's the main use of audio streaming so I had to cancel my SPOT subscription, even though I liked their curation and everything else. But there is no point for me to stay. Apple Music isn't as flawless as Spotify when it comes to the UI, but if it's about having your collection available on your watch, it's perfect.

 

joe_main

If anyone is interested, here is an interesting article from iDropNews explaining the probable cause of Spotify not offering offline playback on the Apple Watch, and why it should now be possible with WatchOS 7, which was released in September.

 

I have literally been waiting years for Spotify to offer offline playback on Apple Watch, but I really feel like it's getting close now.

krispy4

@Joe_main, we'd spoken about the contents of the article you mentioned (re: DRM) and, unfortunately, it did Spotify an excuse. Even though I truly doubt that was their rationale. As a company that has always had it out for Apple, there's no doubt they would have used the exclusion of DRM rights as part of their arsenal of weapons against Apple. And yet, they've mysteriously kept quiet.

 

But now that WatchOS 7 has been out for months now, what's their excuse? This could actually have been something they could implemented that very week it came out. And yet, here we still are. So it goes beyond the DRM. 

 

These are the two options I see as the reasons it hasn't been implemented:

1. It's not a priority to them, they don't care about Apple Watch users.

2. The ability to download and play offline has been reserved specifically for Samsung with their Galaxy Watch partnership. Samsung clearly has a partnership with Spotify where all phones and watches have Spotify already pre-downloaded.

 

So the fact that they bought a company (or the rights to an app that a developer made) that provided offline storage on the Apple Watch only to kill the app shows first and foremost that they have the technology to offer offline downloads whenever they feel like it, and 2) that they're willing to pay significant sums of money to ensure that consumers DON'T get offline storage on their Apple Watches.

 

 

 

Ab7943

If this isn’t sorted within a few months I’m moving to Apple Music, no need for loyalty if there’s no reasoning behind it.

11141066222

Laters Spotify, disappointing end to six years👋🏻... Whatever the reason be it DRM, partnerships or spite.  The contempt you show to your consumers is inexcusable!  You could easily communicate to us the real reason but you choose not to.  The Apple watch can't be ignored, it's the worlds best selling smart watch!  The introduction of Apple One will sway even more consumers to move.  To anyone considering moving, don't be worried it's easy.  The Songshift app is now working again with the Spotify API.  So you are free to move your custom playlists over to Apple Music as you please.