Google trades out Play Music for YouTube Music on new Android handsets

Google has long since been moving its primary music service from Google Play Music over to YouTube Music for the past year. The firm had been working to fill out its initially barely functional app with user-friendly features like Smart Playlists and Offline Music support.

Now, Google is pre-installing the app in place of Google Play Music on Android 9 (Pie) and 10 devices going forward. This means that YouTube Music will now take the place of GPM as the default music player, with a subscription a tap away.

Google said:

YouTube Music is your personal guide through the complete world of music—whether it’s a hot new song, hard to find gem, or an unmissable music video. Music fans on Android phones can now easily unlock the magic of YouTube Music, which will come installed on all new devices launching with Android 10 (and Android 9), including the Pixel series.

Google has steadily been improving YouTube Music with features like its New Release Mix and its new Discover Playlist. By preinstalling it, the firm likely hopes Android’s widespread reach will help push higher adoption of the YouTube Music service.

Source: Google