Yesterday, YouTube Music officially launched podcasts in the US, and they can now be played on the Wear OS app. To access the podcasts, navigate to the Downloads page in YouTube Music for Wear OS, and scroll down to the Library section at the very bottom of the list. The “Podcasts” option will appear after Last Played, Playlists, Albums, Songs, Artists, and Subscriptions.
It’s important to ensure that you have updated to version 5.54 of YouTube Music for Wear OS, which was released yesterday, by using the Play Store on your watch. Once you have accessed the podcasts, you will be able to see all the shows you are subscribed to, along with auto-playlists for New Episodes and Episodes for Later. When you select a podcast, you will be able to view a list of available episodes along with their respective cover art.
After accessing the podcasts on YouTube Music for Wear OS, you can choose to either stream or download the episodes to your wearable device. This is especially beneficial for devices such as the Pixel Watch, which has 32GB of storage.
The Now Playing feature allows for a 10-second rewind and 30-second forward buttons, however, there are no options for controlling the playback speed or setting a sleep timer.
By offering podcasts on Wear OS, YouTube Music joins other apps such as indie ones and Spotify, while Pocket Casts is currently in the process of developing their own watch app.
Currently, YouTube Podcasts in Music is only available in the US, but it will be released in other countries at a later date.