Google Play Music Scores Mobile Data Usage Metering And Faster Downloads

Google has updated its Google Play Music app again, this time tossing into the mix three features that, while not terribly detailed, do cover areas where users have lodged complaints and requests, and that preps it for the upcoming Google Play Music All Access service. The update is available now from the Play Store.

The updated music app has three new features: improvements to search, faster music downloads, and less mobile data being used, the last of which is perhaps the most eye-catching of the three, although faster downloads is always a welcomed change. In order to find out how much each change is relevant to you, you're going to have to upgrade the app, then fire it up and check things out.

The search improvements weren't detailed, with the release note only indicating that the improvements concerns the quality of searches being made. This likely means the search results that appear when the user fires off a query will be more in tune with what they're looking for, and that is a good thing. But to what degree you'll find this change relevant likely depends on what you search for.

As for the faster downloads, all the change log says is: "Keeping music on device now much faster." Which doesn't tell us too much, except that some users – those to whom such a change most pertains – will notice some speed increases over what they're used to. Again, how much of an improvement this will be to you personally will probably be dependent on some specific-to-you variables.

And finally, there's the new mobile data changes, which aims to make sure users don't go over their monthly data limits, incurring high monthly bills in the process. This is achieved via a "new setting for mobile network bandwidth usage" that users can adjust to suit their preferences. This update brings the Music app up to version 5.0.1052J.

SOURCE: The Next Web