Spotify finally delivered something we called once The “holy grail of smartphone streaming” – the ability to download songs to your watch so you can listen to them even when your phone is at home and you’re jogging through the woods without a data connection. The feature is now rolling out, although you will need a Spotify Premium account to use it.
By the way, to play music from your Apple Watch, you need to connect your bluetooth headphones to the watch (it won’t play through the watch’s speakers). To connect Bluetooth headphones, if you haven’t already, open the Settings app on your watch, tap Bluetooth and activate pairing mode on your device. Once connected, you can listen to music or podcasts right from your watch using apps that support it. (For example Apple Music or Audible.)
How to Download Spotify Playlists on Your Apple Watch
- Open Spotify on your phone.
- Choose a playlist. (You cannot download individual titles.)
- Tap on the three dots to get a menu. One of the options should be “Download to this device” (your phone) and another “Download to Apple Watch”.
- Open the Spotify app on your Apple Watch.
- Tap the rectangle that looks like a phone; That way, you can decide where to listen from. Choose your watch.
This last step is important because the Spotify Apple Watch app can act as a remote control for your phone. When you choose your watch, your watch will actually play the music and you can leave your phone at home. Just make sure your music is fully downloaded before you go.
You can swipe from the main Spotify screen in the app to what is known as the Spotify “home screen”, which shows your library and recently played tracks. There is now an option that says Downloads and from there you can select a downloaded playlist to listen to.
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How much music can I download to my Apple Watch?
Spotify says Downloads are limited to 50 songs per playlist, but you can download as many playlists as you have room. They estimate that a watch can typically store 10 hours of audio depending on what else you have stored on it.
