New Pandora app lets you stream music to Apple Watch & AirPods without iPhone

AppleInsider

Pandora now allows listeners to stream music and podcasts on their Apple Watch -- without needing an iPhone.

The Pandora app for Apple Watch is now officially a standalone app after a new update that went live on February 13.

Pandora's official update reads, "Leave the phone at home and bring all of your listening with you thanks to our updated Apple Watch app. Now you can stream your favorite music and podcasts, straight from your wrist - no phone required."

Other services, like Apple Music, need users to pre-load music on an Apple Watch for a run or other exercise, when the iPhone isn't in range. The feature requires the watch in question to be running watchOS 6 or greater.

In 2019, Pandora redesigned their Apple Watch app with offline playback support. They also overhauled their macOS app for its radio streams and on-demand music, taking advantage of newer tech including station Modes.

soli

I hope this comes to Spotify and SiriusXM.

ihatescreennames

AppleInsider said:

Pandora's official update reads, "Leave the phone at home and bring all of your listening with you thanks to our updated Apple Watch app. Now you can stream your favorite music and podcasts, straight from your wrist - no phone required."

Other services, like Apple Music, need users to pre-load music on an Apple Watch for a run or other exercise, when the iPhone isn't in range. The feature requires the watch in question to be running watchOS 6 or greater.

I'm not sure this is accurate. I can stream Apple Music to my (LTE) Apple Watch when my phone is not with me, there is no pre-loading of music required. But if I had a GPS-only Apple Watch how would Pandora stream music if my phone wasn't nearby?  To be clear, the quote from Pandora's website is an accurate quote, I'm just not sure the content of the quote is correct. My guess is that Pandora neglected to add "*cellular connectivity required".

strangedays

ihatescreennames said:

AppleInsider said:

Pandora's official update reads, "Leave the phone at home and bring all of your listening with you thanks to our updated Apple Watch app. Now you can stream your favorite music and podcasts, straight from your wrist - no phone required."

Other services, like Apple Music, need users to pre-load music on an Apple Watch for a run or other exercise, when the iPhone isn't in range. The feature requires the watch in question to be running watchOS 6 or greater.

I'm not sure this is accurate. I can stream Apple Music to my (LTE) Apple Watch when my phone is not with me, there is no pre-loading of music required. But if I had a GPS-only Apple Watch how would Pandora stream music if my phone wasn't nearby?  To be clear, the quote from Pandora's website is an accurate quote, I'm just not sure the content of the quote is correct. My guess is that Pandora neglected to add "*cellular connectivity required".

I think that’s a given - you need cellular or wifi connectivity. 

panamaniak

Will this work on the free tier of Pandora? Or only for paid subscription members?

It’s really annoying Spotify doesn’t have cellular streaming on their Apple Watch app. Maybe this will push them to include that feature.

Bought a cellular AW5 specifically so I could leave my phone at home and still be able to listen to music and receive calls and txt. 

esquirecats

It's problematic for Spotify to continually claim competitive issues from Apple, when a much smaller player is able to bring out an "offline" and streaming capable Watch app, while leaving Spotify users waiting yet again. This is in stark contrast to Spotify's effort which requires the phone nearby, and doesn't even support the larger screen sizes available with 2018's Apple Watch range.

Other services, like Apple Music, need users to pre-load music on an Apple Watch for a run or other exercise, when the iPhone isn't in range. The feature requires the watch in question to be running watchOS 6 or greater.

This isn't all that accurate, with an Apple Watch (and without the paired iPhone nearby) you can do the following in addition to preloading content:

• Browse and stream your full music library 
• Browse and steam customised For You selections of music
• Browse and stream Apple Music's Radio stations along with custom stations (this is in the separate Radio app)

Additionally the device will also intelligently pre-load content onto the watch without you specifically needing to request it (Weekly playlists, favourites, song/albums from artists you've been listening to etc), however I think your statement fairly assumed that functionality.

The only thing the Apple Watch doesn't currently do is let the user perform a wide-net browsing/searching of the Apple Music catalogue.

panamaniak

I've had a hard time finding the info on this, but from what I can find, the new streaming feature is limited to the paid tier membership.

I'm using the free tier and can confirm that as of today, I'm not able to stream anything via cellular without my iPhone being connected to the watch... what a bummer. I really want/need streaming music without having my phone around. Seems like the only viable option at this time is an Apple Music membership.

Ugh....

*edit* Well, looks like it does work on the free tier w/ cellular connection! Had to delete the app from my watch and reinstall it. Guess it just simply hadn't updated yet.

So...................... Come the hell on Spotify! Get your Sh_t together guys!

edited February 2020