Home
Apps
Apps News
YouTube Music Can Now Play Locally Stored Audio Files on Your Phone

YouTube Music Can Now Play Locally Stored Audio Files on Your Phone

By Harpreet Singh | Updated: 28 March 2019 10:06 IST

YouTube Music Can Now Play Local Audio Files

Highlights

YouTube Music was launched in India earlier this month
YouTube Music now lets users play downloaded audio files on Android
In-app support for local files still isn't available though

YouTube Music was launched in India alongside YouTube Premium earlier this month. YouTube had launched the two services internationally in June 2018. Google may be looking at replacing Google Play Music with YouTube Music later on, according to several reports. Apart from streaming music online, YouTube Music now lets you play locally stored audio files as well - on Android. However, the app still doesn't support in-app local media playback. To recall, YouTube Music is offered in two tiers in the country - free and paid.

The feature is available in YouTube Music v.3.07.52 and is also currently available in the newer v.3.07.54, as spotted by Android Police. There's no mention of the feature in the app's changelog on the Google Play Store.

YouTube Music, YouTube Premium Launched in India, Pricing Starts at Rs. 99 Per Month

Google Play Music still lets you play local audio files within the app, something YouTube Music doesn't support yet - as we mentioned, it doesn't support in-app local media playback. But you can now pick YouTube Music as an app to open music files from file managers, to play audio.

YouTube Music can handle files in most popular audio formats including MP3, Ogg, FLAC, and WAV. When you're playing locally stored audio files, YouTube Music continues to play the track where Google Play Music left off.

The ability to play local audio files was first spotted in version 3.03, earlier this month by 9to5Google, apart from Android Auto integration. However, not all users were able to make it work, which means YouTube may have refined it in the most recent updates.

How to play locally stored audio files on YouTube Music

Tap a downloaded audio file via an app or a file manager.
This will open up the "Open with" prompt, select YouTube Music from the list.
You'll see a small music player on the screen with a black overlay, along with YouTube Music branding.
When you're launching it for the first time, your phone will ask if you want to allow YouTube Music access to locally stored files first.
Closing the player will stop the audio playback. These files will not appear in YouTube Music.

Of course, you'll need to ensure your YouTube Music app has been updated to the last version to use this new feature.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: YouTube Music

Harpreet Singh

Email Harpreet

Harpreet is the community manager at Gadgets 360. He loves all things tech, and can be found hunting for good deals when he is not shopping online. He has written about deals and e-commerce in India for many years, as well as covering social media and breaking technology news. More