{"id":372890,"date":"2026-04-10T11:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T11:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/372890\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T11:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T11:59:12","slug":"im-a-longtime-apple-watch-user-but-i-wish-it-had-this-one-pixel-watch-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/372890\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m a longtime Apple Watch user, but I wish it had this one Pixel Watch feature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lately, I\u2019ve started running again, using my Apple Watch Series 9<\/a> to keep track of my workouts. While it\u2019s been phenomenal at showing me the week-over-week improvements I\u2019ve been making, I\u2019m still forced to bring my iPhone 17 Pro<\/a> on all of my runs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s annoying because the whole point of wearing the best smartwatch<\/a> around my wrist is to free myself from my iPhone when I exercise, so it\u2019s one less thing I have to worry about. The problem is partly due to how the YouTube Music app<\/a> doesn\u2019t 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 \u2014 and that\u2019s not helpful at all.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019ve started wearing a Google Pixel Watch 3<\/a> on my other wrist, simply to allow me to listen to my music without my phone. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love my Apple Watch, but it desperately needs to fix this. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

YouTube Music app for watchOS is just a controller<\/p>\n

\n

\"Apple\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

Obviously, I like the convenience of using my Apple Watch to control the music I\u2019m listening to on my AirPods Pro 3<\/a>. At first, it wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

You can imagine my frustration by this point, but it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Standalone streaming on Pixel Watch<\/p>\n

\n

\"Pixel\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

After a couple of days trying to figure out what to do, I decided to set up an old Pixel Watch 3<\/a> I previously used \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve paired my Pixel Buds Pro 2<\/a> with my Pixel Watch 3, which lets me stream my entire library while I\u2019m running. Beyond that, it also stores songs from my Downloads playlist locally, so I\u2019m not forced to constantly stream and eat up my data.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s honestly the only fix I have until Google addresses this. You read that right: it\u2019s actually Google that needs to fix this, not Apple.<\/p>\n

Apple has the door open, but Google hasn\u2019t walked through<\/p>\n

\n

\"Pixel\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Yet, the YouTube Music app for watchOS remains reluctant to offer this simple functionality \u2014 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\u2019s just throwing money away.<\/p>\n

I might look weird wearing two smartwatches for now, but I\u2019m going to have to do it until Google decides to stop gatekeeping its best features and actually support the platforms its customers are using.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Google\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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