To be precise, Yes! Smartwatches can play music these days without having a smartphone around.
All the latest watches by Apple, Samsung, Mobvoi, Garmin, and Fossil have enough capacity to store at least a few hundred songs.
Apart from that, as the smartwatches rose to prominence, popular music streaming services like Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Pandora all released their wearable apps. For Amazon Music and Spotify, Garmin and Samsung watches are best, whereas, Apple supports its own Apple Music and Fitbit is best for Pandora and Deezer.
This post will bust some of the myths surrounding the music experience on smartwatches.
They Can Only Play Music When Connected To Smartphones:
Smartwatches have long been a remote control for music on phones. This feature hasn’t been dropped but has become ubiquitous.
However, for the past couple of years, there has been a myriad of smartwatches with music storage. Fitbit, Apple, Samsung, and Fossil all have smartwatches with a storage capacity that ranges from a mere 4GB to as large as 32GB.
Keep in mind that roughly half of this storage is dedicated to music. Whereas, the other half is reserved for apps.
You Cannot Stream Music On Smartwatches:
Streaming Music on Spotify, Amazon Music, & Deezer is what we have become used to, and nobody wants to go back to uploading good old Mp3 Music on smartphones. We don’t expect our smartwatches to compel us to do so.
We accept that the early watches don’t have connectivity options other than slow Bluetooth technology. But now we have Wi-Fi and even LTE connectivity on the smartwatches. So streaming tracks, audiobooks and podcast is very much a reality.
Samsung and Apple both have LTE variants for they demand a little extra. Keep in mind, streaming music on the smartwatch will take heavy on the battery performance.
Music On Smartwatches Is A Premium Feature:
Garmin spread the misconception about the music feature. Many of its models have a separate Music unit for which they cost extra (about $50). To mention a few, Garmin Venu SQ music, Garmin Forerunner 245 Music, and Garmin Forerunner 645 Music offer nothing more than music than their base models.
But many affordable watches these days offer music storage. Surely, you cannot stream music on these watches, but you can surely store songs. Both Huami and Mobvoi offer plenty of affordable watches that can store Mp3 Songs.
Apple Watch Doesn’t Support Any Other Music Streaming Service Than ‘Apple Music’
Apple has been reluctant to give way to third-party competitor apps on its devices, but for smartwatches, it seems to open up. Along with Apple Music, you can run other third-party music streaming apps.
The prime example is that of Spotify. We all know about the row between Apple and EPIC Games group, and that Spotify sided with the latter. But even that doesn’t let Apple discontinue support for Spotify on its premium watches.
If you’re a Spotify subscriber and own an Apple Watch, you can play and store playlists, podcasts, and albums right on your wrist.
Also, you can stream music right from your wrist independently from your iPhone via Wi-Fi or LTE.
Music Experience On Smartwatches Is Terrible:
If you are referring to the music being played on the tiny speakers of a smartwatch, true, it is a terrible experience. They are not build to play songs but for the voice assistant to read commands and actions.
However, if you connect the earbuds to your smartwatch, the music experience is the same as that on the smartphone.
The Bluetooth technology on the smartwatches was not strong enough so surely there was lag that can ruin your music experience. But now, most of the premium watches feature Bluetooth 5.0 which ensures better connectivity and fast transfer for data, thus a lag-free experience.
Final Words:
Smartwatches have been changing the world the same way smartphones and pc did decades ago. In the past, they were nothing but an extension of smartphones, mimicking the notifications, controlling music, and setting alarms.
The delinking of smartwatches from phones is welcome progress. Now, smartwatches have become a tech gadget in their own right. They can make calls, send texts, and even stream music independently of the smartphone over Wi-Fi and Cellular connectivity.
Apart from that, they can now track fitness and health metrics which haven’t been possible in smartphones.
