YouTube Music – New Features Highlights: July 2024

If you’re a Premium member, you’ll now be able to download music albums, playlists, and individual songs/videos for offline playback on the web as well. We know this was a top requested feature from our Premium listeners, and are excited to finally bring it to you!

If you’re using the YouTube Music app on mobile or tablets, you can now search for music in a new way: by humming, singing, or playing a song in the background. We began rolling this feature out to users across different devices back in March, but are ramping it to everyone in July!

Launched to all YouTube Music listeners on mobile & tablets.

[3 March] Expanding Ai generated custom playlist art
If you’re a listener anywhere in the world, you can now try out a new feature that creates customized playlist art using generative AI. The guided experience allows you to effortlessly explore from a range of visual themes and options to create one-of-a-kind cover art that expresses the uniqueness of your personal playlists. We announced this feature back in November, and are glad to now expand it to all our listeners around the globe.

If you spend time watching Samples on YouTube Music, you’ll notice that comments are now enabled on them! We hope this update helps you engage more easily with the music community and participate in real-time conversations. You’ll find that the commenting experience on Samples is similar to the VOD experience in YouTube Music. However note that if comments have been disabled on the original music video, they will be disabled on the Sample as well.

If you use the YouTube Music mobile app on Android or iOS, you’ll notice that we’ve made changes to the comments doc. Now when you open comments, you’ll notice how the player is pushed right to the top and the comment docks right under it. This way, you can access player controls and read comments simultaneously.

If you frequent your YouTube Music settings, you’ll notice a new subscriptions settings page. Getting to this page is easy, just select Settings > Notifications > Subscriptions and you’ll see all the channels you’re currently subscribed to, along with the option to Unsubscribe from each of them as well. 

You can now also take a look back at the songs that defined your Spring through Spring Recap, the latest installment of our personalized experience – following your Winter recap – that provides you with a recap of your top artists, songs, albums and playlists from the last season. You can find your Spring Recap, along with a personalized Spring Recap playlist, in the Your Recap page in the YouTube Music app. You’ll notice that the recap has the same look and feel as your end of year recap, along with the option to ‘Add to library’ story card.

You now have the ability to share your private playlists as well. When you click on the share icon from your playlist page, you’ll see a new dialog asking you to ‘Make your playlist shareable’ first. You’ll then have to choose whether you want to make your playlist public or share an unlisted link.

If you’re using the YouTube Music app for mobile, you’ll notice a new Activity Feed that provides a centralized platform with meaningful notifications that you can review at your own time. You can use this feed to learn when your comments receive likes or replies, when someone adds to your collaborative playlist, when an artist you’ve subscribed to releases a new track or album and more! The feed will also recommend new artists based on your similar subscribed artists and listening history.

You’ll be happy to know that YouTube Music & Premium is now available in Morocco, Tanzania, Yemen, Libya, Jamaica, Uganda, Reunion, Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Listeners in this country will be able to choose from Individual, Family & Student Plans.

Launched to all YouTube Music listeners.

[4 March] Updated share panel on Android
If you use the YouTube Music app for Android you’ll see an upgraded share panel with a refreshed UI. Instead of seeing all your share options at once, you’ll now see a top row with your most frequently shared-to apps and the option to copy URL & share to another app below. This experience is similar to the UI already available on iOS devices and on the YouTube app for both Android & iOS.

Launched to all YouTube Music listeners on mobile.

[26 June] Improved Podcasts content on other devices
If you listen to podcasts on Android Auto, Sonos, Android Clock or Ohana devices, you’ll be happy to see new Podcast shelves showing Your shows, Your new episodes, Recommended episodes and more. 

If you own a Garmin smartwatch, you’ll be happy to know that you can now browse, download, and play music or podcasts on it via the YouTube Music app. Note that this is currently available on the following Garmin devices: Epix Gen 2 / Epix Gen 2 Pro, Fenix 7 / 7s / 7x, Fenix 7 Pro / 7x Pro / 7s Pro, Forerunner 965, Forerunner 955, Forerunner 265 / 265S, Forerunner 255 Music /255s Music, Venu 3 / Venu 3S

[6 June] Swipe to skip on iOS
You can now swipe the album art horizontally to skip tracks when listening to music on your mobile device. We hope this change makes navigating your next up queue a lot more easy and intuitive. This feature has always been available on Android, and we’re happy to bring it to iOS devices too!

For those of you who listen to music using the YouTube app for Smart TVs & Gaming Console devices, you’ll now see a new Recently played shelf where you’ll find (as the name suggests) your most recently played music based on your watch history. This new shelving replaces the ‘From your music library’ shelf and will rank anywhere on the music tab based on your usage habits!

[20 May] Start radio button on iOS player
If you’re using the YouTube Music app on an iOS device, you’ll now have the option to Start a radio by clicking on the new button above the watch player. This brings you one step closer to the music you want to listen to, without having to click through the three dot menu. Already available on Android, we’re excited to bring iOS devices to parity as well.

[21 May] Gradient background on player page on iOS
If you’re using the YouTube Music app on an iOS device, you’ll see a refreshed player page with a gradient background replacing the solid backgrounds it had previously – giving the player a more modern look and feel. Already available on Android, we’re excited to finally roll this out to iOS devices as well.

[15 May] Podcast support in HomePod
If you listen to Podcasts and also own a HomePod device, you can now play, pause and skip podcast content directly from the smart speaker.

If you frequently cast from the YouTube Music app to another device, you’ll notice a new & modern device menu that better supports transitioning playback from one device to another without disconnecting. This was launched to iOS devices last year and we’re happy to now bring it to Android as well!

If you’re listening to music on an iOS device, you can now double tap on the art to like a track. When you do, you’ll see a thumbs up animation and notice that the like status of your track changes as well.

[5 March] Upgraded headers for YouTube Music on Smart TVs
If you listen to music via the YouTube app for Smart TVs & Gaming Consoles, you’ll see improved headers with a more modern look & feel. These headers, that are currently available only in the first shelf in the music tab, will provide you a more immersive watching experience, where the background changes as you scroll through it. If you hover on a thumbnail, you’ll notice that the track will begin to play automatically.

Launched to all YouTube Music listeners on Smart TVs & Gaming Consoles.