Deezer has jumped ahead of music streaming rivals by offering users the ability to download offline playlists to the Apple Watch.
Paid subscribers of the service will be able to offline sync any personal or curated playlist, and listen to it without your iPhone.
That’s great news for runners, gym-goers and people that dislike clothes with pockets.
It’s significant because it’s the only music streaming app that offers offline syncing for the Apple Watch, other than Apple Music. That means that Deezer has beaten Spotify to the significant landmark. The Spotify app lets you select music from playlists and control playback – but not store music locally.
Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music all offer offline syncing on Garmin smartwatches and sports devices, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch range also offers Spotify offline syncing.
It’s not been clear whether that’s been a lack of appetite from services to add the functionality, or whether Apple was limiting brands to favour its own streaming service.
But now all gloves are off – and it will put pressure on other services to offer the same functionality.
“When we updated our new Apple Watch app we wanted our users to have an effortless and hassle-free experience. Downloadable playlists give music fans the peace of mind to listen at will and enjoy with the convenience of Apple Watch from the wrist,” said Nicolas Pinoteau, Director of Partnership Solutions at Deezer.
The functionality is available now, just make sure your Apple Watch software is up to date. If you’re not sure how, check out our how to update the Apple Watch guide.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.