Spotify on Samsung smartwatches: How to connect, download and listen to your music

Give your Galaxy Watch the full Spotify treatment - which includes offline playback
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No matter which Samsung Galaxy smartwatch you own, the brilliant and fully-featured version of the Spotify app is just waiting for you to download and use.

Unlike the Spotify apps on other watches, the Samsung app isn't just a screen that lets you pause and skip tracks. This is much more than a second screen remote, letting you download playlists, listen offline and save new finds to your Spotify account.

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Want to know how to use it? Read on for everything you need to know, including details on linking your account, syncing playlists and connecting wireless headphones.

How to install Spotify

Spotify on Samsung smartwatches: How to connect, download and listen to your music

Spotify is one of the best apps you can download for your Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Watch Active 2, but it doesn't come pre-installed.

The easiest way to download it is through your phone, but keep in mind your Samsung smartwatch will need to be connected to your phone for this to work.

Download Spotify

1. Run the Galaxy Watch app.

2. Select 'Galaxy Store' and search for 'Spotify' in the search bar. You may well find it’s in one of the promotional slots in the Galaxy Store app homepage, too.

3. Press the 'Install' button on the Spotify app’s page and it’ll start installing on your Galaxy Watch.

Linking your Spotify account

1. Press the Galaxy Watch’s lower-right hardware button to get to the app catalogue screen, and scroll clockwise until you see the circle with the Spotify logo.

2. Run the Spotify app and you’ll be asked to link the watch app to your Spotify account using your phone.

3. You'll receive a prompt on your phone, where you can input your Spotify login in the page that pops up.

4. With that done, the Galaxy Watch's Spotify basics are in place. You can just browse through the library and play songs through the watch’s speaker.

Using the Spotify app

Spotify on Samsung smartwatches: How to connect, download and listen to your music

Downloading albums, storage and offline playback

You can download Spotify albums right to your Galaxy Watch, just like the phone app. You should see the 'Download' slider when you head into the page of an album.

If you want to see how much room Spotify is using, go to 'Settings > Offline'. Down at the bottom, you’ll see the figure, alongside a button that lets you flush it all out to free up space.

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This same menu has some other important sliders: 'Only Sync While Charging' stops downloads draining the battery when away from the charger, and 'Download Using Cellular' uses your SIM data to download tracks. You’ll see this option if you have a 4G/LTE Samsung smartwatch.

There’s also 'Go Offline'. This restricts to you tracks you have downloaded.

The bad news? Just like the phone app, the offline mode is fiddly, as the navigation doesn’t change. Most areas just end up empty. The best way to deal with being offline use is to use offline playlists, and then ignore the rest of the app.

Creating playlists

Samsung's Spotify app doesn't let you create and edit playlists. You can only access the ones already attached to your account in 'Your Music > Your Playlists'.

However, you can save tracks to your library if you stumble across a song you like in the 'Discover' section and don’t want to forget it.

As it plays, press the three dots at the bottom of the playback screen. You should see a 'Save' button in this page, which adds it to your collection.

Controlling playback

There's a little extra control panel with shortcuts for volume, shuffle and repeat. To turn the volume up or down, for example, press the three dots at the bottom of the playback screen.

After selecting the volume option, just turn the crown to control the volume level.

Connecting wireless headphones

Spotify on Samsung smartwatches: How to connect, download and listen to your music

If you actually want your music to sound good, you need to connect the watch to a wireless speaker or pair of wireless headphones – you can do this from inside the Samsung Spotify app:

1. From the front page, scroll down and select 'Settings'.

2. Tap 'Bluetooth Audio' and the watch will start searching for Bluetooth devices that are ready to connect.

If your Bluetooth device doesn’t have a dedicated Bluetooth button, check the manual. However, you usually just have to long press the power button when turning the device into pairing mode.

Remote vs standalone

We’ve talked about the standalone version of Spotify for the Samsung Galaxy Watch, but there's also another one baked right into the app.

Go to 'Settings' and select 'Playback' here, you can switch between 'Standalone' and 'Remote' modes. The latter makes the watch act as a Bluetooth controller for your phone.

It doesn’t play the tunes, the phone does. You could say this is the “classic” wearable version of Spotify. You may want to use it if you go running, or to the gym, with a phone in your pocket.

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Andrew does freelance writing and editing for some of the UK's top tech and lifestyle publications including TrustedReviews, Stuff, T3, TechRadar, Lifehacker, Wareable, The Ambient, and more.


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