Google Music For IPhone. App Overview

2023 Author: Gordon Kinson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 08:36

Since last week, Google's proprietary music service has been available to users of iOS gadgets. And for those who are launching Google Music for the first time, there are some useful tips that will certainly come in handy.

Getting started: setting up an account

The application does not allow creating accounts on the service - this is Google's policy related to the peculiarities of the financial model used by the company. Therefore, the first thing to do is go to play.google.com/music using a PC or tablet, and then create and activate an account. Please note that it is not necessary to provide your credit card details right away, unless you are just going to actively start shopping right away.

Uploading your music tracks to the cloud storage

If you have your own music collections, copies of them can be saved in the service - the limit is 20,000 tracks. The processes of downloading music are automated as much as possible, the user is only required to indicate the folder in which the files are stored and give a command - the rest of the application will be done independently. The only downside is that this process can take a long time.

Full access

To popularize its music service among the audience of the iOS platform, Google provides one month of free access to all its sections, including Internet radio. When activating trial access, you will still be asked to log in to Google Wallet (enter your credit card details), but the money will not be charged. However, then for the pleasure of using the extensive music collection of the service, you will have to pay 189 rubles monthly, the fee will be charged automatically upon the expiration of the trial access. You can not do this - then you will have to be content with only those tracks that were downloaded personally by the user. The rest of the system operation is identical to Pandora or iTunes Radio, and here you can also listen to music in whole albums or one song at a time.

Purchasing music

Unlike the classic version for Android, the iOS modification of the Google Music app does not allow buying music tracks. You can also browse catalogs on the iPhone, but you will have to buy what you like in a workaround way - using the Safari browser. All music content selected and paid for by this method is automatically synchronized with the library in the profile and is immediately available for playback on a mobile gadget. Many users note that all financial transactions with the Google Music catalog are generally easier for owners of iOS gadgets to immediately perform using the desktop, rather than trying to find another solution on the iPhone.

Downloading tracks to your smartphone

Streaming music online is convenient, but far from ideal. It is worth delaying a monthly payment or just being out of the network access zone and the music stops, which is not pleasant. Unless, of course, you have not previously recorded several albums in the smartphone's memory. This is easy to do - by clicking the corresponding button in the window with the names of artists or album names. It is also easy to delete it, using the same button or using standard tools for managing files on a smartphone.

But what is not easy is to understand which of the hundreds of tracks on the list have already been downloaded, and which have not yet - if your own memory is not able to suggest the answer. Saved compositions are marked with bright colored icons, while inactive ones are dimmed. But without an Internet connection and the ability to quickly check the guess, it is still not so easy to navigate - there are already complaints from users.

Saving data

Describing the advanced features of the Play Music service, it is worth noting that the iOS version, like its Android counterpart, uses three categories of sound quality. They are interesting not so much for the real sound of music as for the amount of data that needs to be transferred in a particular case. This allows you to flexibly manage traffic and efficiently use the application in various networks, plus save money on your smartphone account. Switching between categories of sound quality is carried out in the side menu of the application, item "Sound quality over the mobile network". The higher it is, the more data the application will request and receive.

Music playback options

One of the hallmarks of Google Play Music is the ability to create playlists and custom mixes from tracks on the fly. It also migrated to the iOS version. Even if there is no Internet access, but some tracks are in the device's memory, the application will be able to form new and new variations from them, simply by shuffling the compositions in random order.

Basic tips are given above, otherwise there should be no problems - the application interface is specially adapted to the specifics of working with iOS. True, it is still more convenient to work with it on the iPhone than on the iPad, due to some shortcomings when operating on devices with a large display diagonal.

Download Google Play Music for iPhone and iPod Touch (App Store).

See also:

• Google will pay $ 17 million to settle the cookie dispute.
• Google Glass is now available to everyone … but at the old price.
• The new Google Terms of Service are effective today.
• Google Play Music came to Russia.