Watchos 6 added streaming audio for apps. So, Spotify will hopefully add it.

https://developer.apple.com/watchos/

To be fair, though, that's 100% Spotify's fault. I remember when there was a watch app for Spotify and Spotify bought out the company and removed the app from the App Store. Now, they refuse to release a new app because of their little dispute with Apple regarding purchases. Makes me hate Spotify because it only adds to the list of really silly things they've done that spites customers but might make them a few dollars in the long run.

I signed up to Apple Music for this very reason, and will likely dump Spotify despite my love for their Discover feature.

This, combined with an Apple Music student discount (yay going back to school as an adult), is exactly what got me to dump Spotify.

Spotify also has a student discount which is what got me to bother paying for it.

The anticompetitive measure by Apple working as designed then.

Looking forward to the inevitable outcry on this forum once the EU competition commissioner levies another fine on Apple worth a day's profits...

Spotify being a baby is an anticompetitive measure by Apple? That's a hot take.

There are no 3rd party apps that can stream over the cell connection or Wifi on the Apple Watch. Pandora, Tunein etc. Some can do offline. Pretty sure Apple only allows their apps to use the cell connection for streaming because thats an Apple thing to do.

That's not true. Spotify purchased an app that did just this by buffering into playlists that updated while they downloaded and then they promptly killed the app. WatchOS 6 also includes the ability for third parties to stream directly and Spotify has publicly said that they refuse to use this until Apple changes their App Store policies.

It's completely do-able and Spotify has the capability to do it, now and in the recent past.

I can stream Spotify offline on my Garmin watch. It’s a game-changer going back to the days of bringing nothing but my watch (and Bluetooth headphones) with me to runs and the gym. Battery life is also several times longer than any Apple Watch generation and the sensors much more accurate and versatile. They claim 2 weeks in smartwatch mode for the Forerunner 945.

But a lot of times the decision to buy a watch is fashion-driven rather than utility-driven, and depending on what city you live in, either high-tech fitness watches are everywhere, or anything other than an Apple Watch gets you a dirty look.

I borrowed a friends Garmin Forerunner for a 2 week MTB trip to NZ, it was certainly capable, but horrific all uncomfortable and I had a small scar for a while where it had dug into the back of my hand.

Have you tried recent devices? Garmin used to have a bump on some forerunners, my wife had it, it was very uncomfortable. I personally have the Vivoactive 3, which is flat, I've been wearing it 24/7 except for charging (during the day, so i've slept with it), and it's very comfortable.

It isn't perfect, but the Mighty (bemighty.com) is basically an iPod Shuffle that you can download Spotify offline playlists to. It filled that niche for me.

You can stream Apple Music over WiFi/cellular without the phone. Not sure if that will include Spotify at some point but I do know the new watchOS has opened up a lot of those APIs.

Apple Music is a disaster when it comes to music discovery, and frankly their app is very much behind compared to Spotify. Even on iOS it feels like a web app, something I didn’t think I’d ever say about Apple’s own, built-in app.

I feel strongly opposite - Spotify UI is a reason why I cancelled subscription. Queue management is just awful, other elements are much less intuitive than in Apple Music.

Even just navigating to an album or browsing songs saved on your device are awful. Everything I want to do in their app requires far too many clicks or endless scrolling through a list that's only sorted alphabetically, and the pages are stuffed with features that push their algorithmic promotions. You're not gonna have a good time unless you're the most mindless, passive consumer and you don't want to bother with managing your library or making any choices of your own.

Saving songs is spotty too, some of the "saved" songs on my phone don't actually have the data and won't play when I'm offline. I can't figure out how to force them to redownload short of maybe uninstalling the app, so sucks to be me I guess. Spotify's mobile app is so bad that I'm constantly reconsidering my subscription. I'd go so far as to say that being able to explore new artists and save their discography for later when I'm commuting is a meaningful improvement to my quality of life, but Spotify has managed to make the experience so shitty that I usually just turn on the radio instead.

Seems like you two use the apps in different ways. Spotify is acceptable for picking a couple songs and discovering similar music, but sucks at just queuing up the music you already know about. I prefer Pandora for discovery, but it sucks at connecting to external devices. Since device integration is my most important feature, I settle for Spotify's discovery.

It's the opposite for me. Spotify kept repeating a small collection of recommended songs to me, until I react to the song by stating whether I like or dislike the song. It takes active effort from me which is bothering. Apple Music's recommendations on the other hand updates every week. And the recommendations have been quite good.

That's nice, but I already pay for spotify and use it on my non-Apple devices. Does Apple Music let me stream any song in their library?

Don't fall for it. I tried switching for a trial period but Spotify owns iTunes in so many ways. Especially the discover weekly list

Yes. Apple Music is just like Spotify.

Oh, huh. Thanks for the info, might open up the watch for me.

Yes, Apple Music is just Spotify by Apple -- but, if you're outside of the USA, you might find less obscure music available. Regional restrictions here in NZ are frustrating.

Or certain integrations won't work outside of the USA. (e.g. Apple Music doesn't work with Alexa in Canada.)

yes, think of it as a spotify clone by apple

Yes.

I got one of these guys (Garmin fenix 5x plus) for that very reason:

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/603229

It's the only watch (or was at the time) that has an independent Spotify app.

I use the Garmin Forerunner 945 that has this functionality now too.

The only reason I don't have an apple watch is because of the square tablet shape that screams "APPLE ON MY WRIST". They need to release something more low key if it's going to be visible on my body all the time.

The last 2 generations of Garmin watches support streaming by Spotify. I'm kind of stunned that Apple doesn't support this.

There was a third party app called Apollo for the Apple Watch. It used the cellular or Wifi connection of the watch to stream directly from the Spotify API.

Spotify issued a cease and desist within days. I still have it installed on my phone and watch - it's a long way short of perfect (when it loses its connection it hangs and there's no easy way to reset it) - but it does work.

So it's not Apple stopping the release of this functionality.

why would spotify issue a cease and desist to an app that keeps people from abandoning their service?

No idea, the developer said he was told they were violating the terms of the Spotify API agreement by using non-standard hardware. The only thing I can think of is Spotify had/has one of their own lined up and haven't released it.

I assume this is all tied up with their campaign about unfair treatment on the App Store, but it still makes little sense to me. Apollo was written by a single developer in their spare time, it works (although not perfectly - still good given it's a 1.0 and they were working alone with no support) and has been released for almost a year.

This

I handle this with an elastic phone waist band (google flip belt for an example). I don't think about the phone at all and do everything from the watch

I really don’t want streaming on the watch to be seen as an acceptable solution by consumers.

If I can’t actually cache my raw media files onto the watch directly and play using any watch-only player app I want, then it’s unusable. Any solution that requires streaming or tethering is a total non-solution.