Spotify offline playlists, the Holy Grail for smartwatch wearers, have finally arrived. Sadly, for the majority of smartwatch adoptees – i.e. Apple Watch and Android Wear users – the arrival is on Samsung’s Tizen platform… but it’s a start at least.
Tizen powers Samsung’s impressive Gear S3 smartwatch and it’s in Spotify’s homeland – Sweden – where the offline syncing is arriving first. The “Listen Offline” feature, a stalwart for Spotify’s mobile apps, will allow users to create and download playlists, and have them available to listen to without a Wi-Fi or Cellular connection through their connected Bluetooth headphones or speakers.
The Samsung Gear S3 also has its own built in speaker, which can also be used for playback, if you’re in the mood for a tinny, annoying sound.
Reports suggest that Spotify’s offline syncing for the Gear S3 is in a beta period, currently rolling out in Sweden, but that the feature will make its way to S3 models globally as well.
The Spotify app for the Gear S3 (and the older Gear S2) first arrived in December 2016, letting users playback their tunes on their wrist, browse through the latest charts, search for artists or scroll through their playlists. The Gear S3’s rotating bezel offers a neat way to control streams away from the touchscreen.
For Android Wear users, the features above are exactly what you get with Google’s smartwatch OS version of the app and for Apple Watch users, there’s no official Spotify love at all… at least at the moment.
A third-party app – Spotty (subsequently renamed Snowy) – surfaced earlier this year, promising to sync Spotify playlists to Apple Watches, without the need for a nearby iPhone. However, Spotify got wind of this and subsequently hired the dev behind it – Andrew Chang - to work on its official Spotify watchOS app.
"I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be working closely with Spotify to bring Snowy to the Apple Watch as part of an official Spotify iOS app,” he said 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."
Offline playlist syncing is a big deal for smartwatches as it cuts the reliance on a wearable device’s need to be tethered to a smartphone. Runners, for example, would be able to accurately track their runs using their smartwatch’s GPS radio, while listening to their favourite running playlists – without needing a data connection.
Let’s hope that Samsung’s efforts kick starts the revolution across the smartwatch board.
