Around two years ago, Google Maps started adding support for major music apps on its interface. This way, you didn’t have to switch between two apps while you’re driving or navigating. Until recently though, the only music apps that they added were Google Play Music, Spotify, and surprisingly, even Apple Music. Now that it is inevitable that Play Music would give way to the new kid on the block, Maps has now finally added support for YouTube Music as well.
Once you are able to set the default music player in your Maps app, you’ll see the music icon right under the Floating Action Button. When you tap the icon, you’ll get the audio controls which will show you the song title, artist, album artwork, and of course the play/pause and forwards/backward controls. When you tap browse, you’ll see the music you recently listened to as well as a progress bar underneath. Of course, these are things you should not look at and explore when you’re actually driving.
Since Google is building YouTube Music as their main music app, it is not surprising that they’re finally adding support for this, at least for the Android app. We still don’t know when we’ll be officially saying goodbye to Play Music but it’s still there as an option. When they discontinue support for it, that’s probably the start of the end for the long-time Google music app. But for now, you can still choose between the two or Spotify or Apple Music, if those are your preferred apps.
Go to Google Maps’ settings and then navigation settings. Your “show media playback controls” should be enabled so you can choose a default media app. You should be able to see YouTube Music there alongside the other previously supported music apps. Of course you will have to sign in to your account before you can choose it as your music app.
The integration should appear on your updated Google Maps app, which should be at version 10.43.2. Your YouTube Music app should also be updated to the latest version if things should work as intended.
