Lately, I’ve started running again, using my Apple Watch Series 9 to keep track of my workouts. While it’s been phenomenal at showing me the week-over-week improvements I’ve been making, I’m still forced to bring my iPhone 17 Pro on all of my runs.
It’s annoying because the whole point of wearing the best smartwatch around my wrist is to free myself from my iPhone when I exercise, so it’s one less thing I have to worry about. The problem is partly due to how the YouTube Music app doesn’t let me download music locally to my Apple Watch. Instead, it simply functions as a glorified Bluetooth controller to access the app’s functions on my iPhone — and that’s not helpful at all.
That’s why I’ve started wearing a Google Pixel Watch 3 on my other wrist, simply to allow me to listen to my music without my phone. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Apple Watch, but it desperately needs to fix this. Here’s why.
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YouTube Music app for watchOS is just a controller
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide / John Velasco)
Obviously, I like the convenience of using my Apple Watch to control the music I’m listening to on my AirPods Pro 3. At first, it wasn’t a problem because I was carrying my iPhone whenever I went for a run. However, the moment I left my home without my phone, the music immediately stopped.
I soon realized that I needed my iPhone on me to use the YouTube Music app on my Apple Watch. I thought it might work if my watch were connected to Wi-Fi — and it did, even when I put my phone into airplane mode. But the moment I stepped out to run without my iPhone, it stopped working.
You can imagine my frustration by this point, but it’s apparent that the app is nothing more than a controller. I verified this by shutting down my iPhone completely, at which point I was finally given a message that my phone was disconnected and out of range.
Standalone streaming on Pixel Watch
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide / John Velasco)
After a couple of days trying to figure out what to do, I decided to set up an old Pixel Watch 3 I previously used — and not surprisingly, it works like a charm. For context, both my Apple Watch and Pixel Watch are LTE versions with active cellular data plans. These plans allow them to operate independently, but the Pixel Watch is the only one that truly severs the tether to a phone.
I’ve paired my Pixel Buds Pro 2 with my Pixel Watch 3, which lets me stream my entire library while I’m running. Beyond that, it also stores songs from my Downloads playlist locally, so I’m not forced to constantly stream and eat up my data.
It’s honestly the only fix I have until Google addresses this. You read that right: it’s actually Google that needs to fix this, not Apple.
Apple has the door open, but Google hasn’t walked through
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide / John Velasco)
This is more of a Google problem than anything else, as Apple has provided the necessary APIs for developers to stream and locally store songs on the Apple Watch. In fact, I can already stream via LTE using apps like Spotify and Pandora.
Yet, the YouTube Music app for watchOS remains reluctant to offer this simple functionality — which serves as a massive incentive to choose a Pixel Watch over an Apple Watch. You could argue that I should just subscribe to another music streaming service, but that’s just throwing money away.
I might look weird wearing two smartwatches for now, but I’m going to have to do it until Google decides to stop gatekeeping its best features and actually support the platforms its customers are using.
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