Wednesday is the day when Google usually updates some or most of its apps on the Play Store. This Wednesday, the company has pushed out the v5.4 version of Google Play Music with some interesting enhancements and additions.
Manage devices and Refresh
The first major and welcome change in this update is the ability to manage all the devices that are connected to your Google account directly from the app. Google Play Music only allows up to 10 Android devices to be connected to your account, after which you will have to go the service’s website to delete some of the old ones and replace them. With the 5.4 update though, you can simply use the ‘Manage Devices’ option in the app for this purpose.
There is also an option to manually refresh the list of your music present in Google’s server.
Play Next and more options in Sidebar
Google has also added a nifty ‘Play Next’ option in this update, allowing users to playback an album or song right after the current one, without the need to re-arrange their playlist or queue. A couple of other minor changes include re-locating the Chromecast button to the bottom of the screen and the ‘Settings’ option being moved to the sidebar.
Google has been slowly updating its apps to move the Settings and other such options to the sidebar, indicating a small change in its design and app development guidelines for Android.
Offline Radio and a floating ‘Playing from’ bar
Another great addition to the app is the ability to pre-download entire radio stations for offline playback. The option works for all the radio channels except the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ station.
Also, the ‘Playing from bar’ that shows up while playing music now floats on the screen as you scroll up and down the list of songs in a Playlist. There are some other under-the-hood changes in this update as well for improved stability and performance.
As always, the Google Play Music update is being rolled out in stages on the Play Store but if you cannot wait for the update to land on your phone, download the APK from here and install it manually.
If you find any other changes in this update, drop in a comment and let us know!
Via – Android Police
