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[iOS] Apple Watch: Spotify Streaming and Offline Listening

Submitted by on ‎2018-09-28 06:50 PM
Status: Implemented

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.

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Comments
Simbo1970
Newbie
2018-03-16 07:31 AM

Another person misses the entire point of the whole thread that people want to listen to music on their cellular watch when their phone is not present

0 Likes
Rahoulb
Regular
2018-03-16 07:38 AM

They asked a legitimiate question.  

 

If you get here from a Google Search and aren't necessarily tech-savvy are you going to hunt through 17 pages of discussion (that frankly has spent several months going nowhere) or think "they're talking about spotify on my watch, maybe they can help me"?

kirst_ellen
Visitor
2018-03-17 07:10 AM

Exactly. Thankyou. Although it’s not that I’m not tech savvy, I simply don’t currently own an Apple Watch (I have a wearable device but it’s a FitBit and doesn’t offer anything beyond fitness stats). So hence I don’t know if it meets my personal needs & I want to do my research before making an informed decision on whether to invest $560 on one. It’s alot of money. Everyone’s needs are different - while this thread is about the fact there isn’t a Spotify app for iWatch, my personal need was that I’m considering an Apple Watch but don’t currently own one. I specifically want to be able to control the skip, pause, stop etc functions of the Spotify I’m streaming from my phone - from my Apple Watch. And wasn’t sure if it could do that (given I don’t yet own one). So I found a thread exactly as you suggested I did, google search. And as you also suggested, I didn’t waste time searching through 17 pages. I just asked my question and fortunately for me, received the answer I was looking for. Job done 🙂

kirst_ellen
Visitor
2018-03-17 07:12 AM

Perfect, thanks!

0 Likes
mainca2
Visitor
2018-03-17 07:21 AM

Hi Everyone, try the 'Watchify' app, it's not perfect but you can at least choose your playlists. It's free too! I use it several times a week during my workouts, you just need to take your phone with you for the connection but it still beats silly Apple Music! Enjoy!

0 Likes
andresmalvido
Newbie
2018-03-17 03:32 PM

Same with me. Considering the change to AM since this is so absurd

0 Likes
user-removed
Not applicable
2018-03-19 07:30 PM

Yes, Apple is keeping them from doing it. APPLE wants their users to use THEIR music streaming software - Apple Music. That's why you cannot use Spotify premium directly on their watches or "Apple iHome" devices. 

Here's a link. This is an example what Apple is doing to Spotify subscribers. If you purchase a Spotify subscription directly from the Apple App Store, you'll be charged around $13 dollars (theres an added $3 fee). As opposed to just having a subscription from Spotify directly, you'll pay $9.99 instead of Apple's $13. Apple is being petty, but its competition, I suppose. 

But to reiterate, you cannot use Spotify as freely on your watches because Apple is limiting that ability. 




0 Likes
etc
Casual Listener
2018-03-19 10:46 PM

The app store's 30% fee and access to the music APIs are two separate issues. Spotify has complained about this practice by both Apple and Google. There are plenty of articles that discuss this at length. This is not a policy that is targeted specifically at Spotify or any music service in particular. All services that would like to charge through the app store incur this fee. Spotify would like the benefit of charging individual through the app store without paying the fee. They could avoid this by having all transactions go through the web instead. That's how Amazon handles e-books.

0 Likes
paidion123
Newbie
2018-03-20 12:57 AM

The fact that some of you have already moved to Apple Music is precisely why Apple won’t allow Spotify on the watch. They’re smart to keep Spotify off the watch since some of us have or are thinking about switching over to Apple Music.

 

On the other hand, I downloaded ‘watchify’ but it doesn’t seem to work independently of  the phone unfortunately.

0 Likes
Rahoulb
Regular
2018-03-20 08:35 AM
@user-removed wrote:

Here's a link. This is an example what Apple is doing to Spotify subscribers. If you purchase a Spotify subscription directly from the Apple App Store, you'll be charged around $13 dollars (theres an added $3 fee). As opposed to just having a subscription from Spotify directly, you'll pay $9.99 instead of Apple's $13. Apple is being petty, but its competition, I suppose. 

 

That's an entirely different issue and is standard practice for any retailer (most retailers have a "stock fee" of much higher than 30%).  

 

The real issue is do the Apple Watch APIs (that developers use) restrict access to streaming?  If yes, then Apple is withholding technology from 3rd parties, if no, then it's Spotify that cannot build the app.  I have heard conflicting reports - as I mentioned before the Outcast App can download and play podcasts directly on the watch with no intervention from the phone, so something along those lines is certainly possible.  

0 Likes