Google’s music ecosystem is confusing to say the least. We all thought they had settled on Google Play Music until YouTube Music came along. No one was sure what to make of it but we all assumed that eventually it would take over from Google Play Music (GPM) as Android’s default music app and it seems that Google are starting to set the stage for this to occur.
The folks at 9to5Google have torn bare the new YouTube Music app and have found some interesting pieces of code which may point towards it becoming the default music player/audio client for Android.
Late last year they found that YouTube Music would now work with “audio files on your device”. This is important as audio files on Android need a default player so now that YouTube Music can do this, once the rest of its functionality matches/exceeds GPM then it can (and will?) replace it.
In the new YouTube Music APK the icons have a new naming scheme which, as you can see below obviously suggest that the app is system installed — see the “systeminstalled” as part of the name — it’s a fair giveaway you would expect. This means it would be installed within the system partition of a device by the manufacturer as a default Google app. This is yet another indication that YouTube Music will eventually replace GPM as the default audio client on Android.
For those who haven’t used YouTube Music lately it’s features are still lacking some of the functionality included in GPM but you can be sure that Google are working on matching those features in the least. While it may not be ready to replace GPM as Android’s default audio player just yet it is destined to do so, it is just a matter of time.
Do you use YouTube Music? Do you like it more than GPM?
