Google Play Music Android Update Adds New Playback, Download Options

Google is rolling out a new version of the Google Play Music app for Android devices. This update comes with new playback and downloading options that can apparently eat up more storage and data when connected to a Wi-Fi network.

On Wednesday, Google released Google Play Music version 7.4.4422-1.N on the Play Store. While the release notes for the update simply states bug fixes, it actually brings some changes that are hard to miss. This new version of the music streaming app comes with new options for both streaming and downloading tracks for offline listening.

When users open the app’s Settings, they can now see more options on the Download quality setting, namely: Low, Normal and High. As expected, Low quality downloading will consume and require less storage. On the other hand, High is the download quality that will eat up more storage. Devices with limited storage will benefit from the Low download quality. When storage is constrained, it’s not advisable to set the Download quality to High, according to 9To5Google.

With the new update, users will also notice the changes on the Quality on Wi-Fi network menu. Before, there were no playback options for this type of connection, but now users can choose from Low, Normal, High and Always High. The Low setting is obviously for those who want to consume less data from a Wi-Fi network. High consumes more data, while Always High sets the quality to top-notch no matter what type of network users are connected to. Because this is the option for the best quality of music streaming, it has the tendency to buffer when one is streaming via slow Wi-Fi networks.

The previous version of Google Play Music only had options for when the app is connected to cellular networks. The changes made to the Download quality and Quality on Wifi network settings are expected to arrive in the iOS version of the app soon. As of writing, the Google Play Music app for the iPhone and iPad is stuck with version 3.20.1005, the version that was released last Feb. 27.