YouTube Music redesign finally comes to iPad

YouTube Music logo
(Image credit: YouTube Music)

A mere two years after the changes were first rolled across Android devices, the YouTube Music iPad app has finally had a major update.

As highlighted by 9to5Google, a new version of the app that has just appeared on the App Store brings about some much-needed changes to the Now Playing screen.

Tapping the art work now brings up options to share what's playing, download it for offline listening or add the track to a playlist.

It’s not all good news, however. Although you can now swipe up or down to access  the Up Next queue, for some reason you can't swipe left and right to change track like you can with Android versions of the app. 

YouTube Music iPadOS app screenshot

(Image credit: YouTube / 9to5Google)

Analysis: Is this the start of more frequent updates for Google apps on Apple devices?

While Google rolls out updates to its Android apps with impressively frequent regularity, it’s fair to say users of its iOS and iPadOS apps haven’t been feeling quite the same amount of love in recent times.

From the agonising wait for picture-in-picture to land on its Apple versions of YouTube, to the company telling users that its own apps were out of date and were a security issue, Google’s treatment of its iOS and iPadOS apps has been borderline neglectful in recent years.

Most overlooked of all have been iPad YouTube Music subscribers who had been left wondering if the platform had been abandoned completely. 

News of this overdue software revision, alongside recent changes to the Archive feature on its Photos app (which was rolled out in tandem with its Android versions), will nevertheless give hope that the days of Google treating its apps for Apple devices as an afterthought may finally be at an end.

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Kevin Lynch

Kevin Lynch is a London-born, Dublin-based writer and journalist. The author of Steve Jobs: A Biographic Portrait, Kevin is a regular feature writer for a number of tech sites and the former Technology Editor for the Daily Mirror. He has also served as editor of GuinnessWorldRecords.com and has been a member of the judging panel for the BAFTA British Academy Video Game Awards. Alongside reviewing the latest AV gear, smartphones and computers, Kevin also specialises in music tech and can often be found putting the latest DAWs, MIDI controllers and guitar modellers through their paces. Born within the sound of Bow Bells, Kevin is also a lifelong West Ham fan for his troubles.