YouTube Music is Going PWA

YouTube Music is apparently converting into a Progressive Web App (PWA) this week and adding support for native playback controls.

News of the change was first reported by 9to5Google, but it’s not clear what they’re basing this on. When I check the YouTube Music website, it’s just a normal website and doesn’t offer an “Install” prompt in Chrome or the new Edge. But 9to5Google says that the change is on the way and is not yet “fully deployed.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Obviously, you can already pin YouTube Music to your taskbar using either browser (in Edge, it’s Menu > More tools > Pin to taskbar, and be sure to open edge://apps, right-click YouTube Music, and uncheck “Open in full browser.”).

And the new keyboard playback control support does already work.

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 10 comments

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    29 October, 2019 - 10:14 am

    <p>This is semi good news!</p><p><br></p><p>The unfortunate part of it is that they’re still bungling along with YouTube Music, which is in every way inferior to Play Music. At least we can have a PWA with terrible audio quality. ?</p><p><br></p><p>Did these clowns ever consider what a boneheaded move it is?</p>

  • wolters

    Premium Member
    29 October, 2019 - 11:02 am

    <p>I've been more than patient with this bungled migration from Google Play Music to YouTube Music but I have to say, they've finally been making rapid progress in this conversion…just hope it doesn't slow down to a crawl… Music Locker and Completing their music library needs to be next priority…</p>

  • sephdk

    29 October, 2019 - 11:10 am

    <p>I got the install option in Chrome, so it is happening. But when will it be in the Microsoft Store? 😉 </p>

  • glenn8878

    29 October, 2019 - 1:24 pm

    <p>Better than nothing especially when the app store has nothing. PWA still has no use scenario on Windows. If Windows wants to be mobile, then they need to fix their launch screens, but recent previews look really bad.</p>

  • Lordbaal

    29 October, 2019 - 2:53 pm

    <p>I'll stick to the web version.</p><p>I don't see the point of PWA on the desktop. When a browser works just as good.</p>

    • CajunMoses

      29 October, 2019 - 10:08 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#484513">In reply to Lordbaal:</a></em></blockquote><p>True, if simply going from a using a Web app to using a PWA. Though some might argue that a PWA running in its own window potentially looks and behaves more like a native app.</p><p><br></p><p>The real advantage is when a PWA supplants an Android app on Chrome OS, which is designed to be the perfect platform for Web apps and, hence, also for PWAs. But <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">really</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> look forward to the prospect of PWAs supplanting mainstream native apps</span> on Android OS, Windows, Mac OS, and iOS.</p>

    • codymesh

      30 October, 2019 - 2:37 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#484513">In reply to Lordbaal:</a></em></blockquote><p>PWA is the web version lol.</p>

  • Lateef Alabi-Oki

    29 October, 2019 - 4:29 pm

    <p>The install option is available on standard Google Chrome.</p>

  • Rob_Wade

    30 October, 2019 - 10:25 pm

    <p>Sure. Why not? Then it can be as horrible an app as Twitter is. I have yet to see a PWA that I thought was worth anything.</p>

  • yourvideoststus

    02 November, 2019 - 7:23 am

    <p>youtube<a href="https://yourvideostatus.deempost.in&quot; target="_blank"> music</a> is good feature but other than sub. fee </p><p>I think PWA is no use in windows</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC