Spotify is coming to an Apple Watch near you
Apple Music and Spotify may be head to head rivals but Apple’s digital watch is currently testing Spotify for a music streaming experience you don’t have to reach for.
Despite their ongoing rivalry for the top spot in music streaming Spotify’s iOS app has begun beta testing on Apple Watch for certain testers. The app is currently limited just to playback but it suggests that Spotify is on the way for Apple Watch users and will open up more music streaming options for Apple Watch owners instead of having to sign up to Apple Music.
For the smoothest streaming experience your Apple Watch requires your iPhone to be nearby and connected but Apple have made it possible to sync albums, artists and playlists to your Apple Watch for playback without an iPhone. It’s not clear yet whether Spotify’s app will have offline support so that subscribers can listen to their Spotify libraries without a connected iPhone.
The Spotify app for Apple Watch seems to have been developed by Andrew Chang, a developer who created the unofficial app Snowy which brought offline playback for Spotify to the Apple Watch. Spotify were impressed and hired Chang to work with them on building Snowy into an official Spotify iOS app last year which is now coming to fruition it seems.
At the time Chang posted on Reddit: “Spotify’s powerful iOS SDK made it possible to develop Snowy, but I can’t wait to take things to the next level with the expertise and tools available at Spotify. While I can’t give any estimates as to when it’ll be available, you can rest assured that a Spotify Apple Watch companion app is in the pipeline.”
Spotify coming to Apple Watches would be a great addition to the dwindling wearable which has seen Instagram, Twitter, Google, and Amazon all disappearing their apps from the platform in the past year. It will also make it more appealing to Spotify subscribers who want to use the Watch for listening to music.