Yes, the major public clouds offer a lot. But what you may not know are the limitations, and how open clouds make the difference. Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021. Apple’s music streaming service Apple Music unexpectedly arrived on Amazon Echo speakers just in time for the 2018 holiday season. Now it appears to be coming to Google’s speakers and smart displays, though the specifics are somewhat ambiguous. Google’s support for Apple Music was revealed in a new update to the Google Home app, version 2.9.118, which included the service within the list of “more music services” that Google Assistant will play from. The app allowed users to tap on Apple Music to select it as the default music service provider, but the integrated “link account” button wasn’t functional, unlike the app’s adjacent options for Pandora, Deezer, and Spotify. At last count, Apple’s service had over 50 million subscribers, a number the company is apparently trying to grow by supporting rival devices. To that end, Apple and Amazon announced a deal to bring Apple Music to Echo last November 30, promising that the feature would become available to users during the week of December 17. Echo speakers actually began to support the feature on December 14, enabling users — after signing into their Apple Music accounts in the Alexa app — to ask Alexa to play Apple’s Beats 1 radio, playlists, individual songs, and other content. Like Amazon’s Echo speakers, Google’s lineup of audio products offers a considerably wider range of price and performance than Apple’s sole smart speaker, HomePod. A tiny Home Mini starts at $49, with the larger Home priced at $129, the screened Home Hub at $149, and the powerful Home Max at $399, though each is frequently discounted. Recent estimates list Google as the number two seller of smart speakers behind Amazon, with the two companies collectively enjoying over 65 percent market share compared with Apple’s roughly 4 percent. Updated at 10:07 a.m. and 10:43 a.m. Pacific: Following publication of our article, a Google spokesperson offered the following statement regarding the addition of Apple Music to the Google Home app. Apple Music is currently only available for Google Assistant users on mobile phones. We have nothing to announce regarding updates to Google Home. Image Credit: Jeremy Horwitz/VentureBeat Improbably, the company yanked the Apple Music link section from the Google Home application — at least for the time being. Only Pandora, Deezer, and Spotify remain as competing alternatives to Google’s own YouTube Music and Google Play Music. However, Apple Music both appears and works in the iOS app Google Assistant, where it was added in late 2017. Google Assistant displays Apple Music a little differently than Google Home did. First, it appears under a separate section titled “services with limited availability,” rather than under the “more music services” section. Image Credit: Jeremy Horwitz/VentureBeat Second, instead of displaying the “link” icon, Assistant has an on-off switch, which when flipped to “on” (and given permission) automatically signs the app into your Apple Music subscription. The same dialog box also apparently permits access to your device’s “music and video activity, and your media library.” It’s hard to believe that Google would have just accidentally added a competitor’s music service to its device-focused Google Home app, so stay tuned — hopefully these rivals will be making beautiful music together soon.<doc-sep>At MWC 2019, Google announced Assistant for Messages on Android, expanded availability in Google Maps, and more languages for bilingual support. The next feature for Google Home speakers and Smart Displays appears to be Apple Music integration. This evening (via MacRumors), Apple Music began appearing as a supported service for Google Assistant. The Apple streaming service can be selected as the default audio provider on Google devices. It joins YouTube Music and Play Music, as well as Spotify, Pandora, and Deezer in the U.S. Unfortunately, this integration is still rolling out and not yet live, with users unable to sign-in and authenticate. Assistant on Google Home currently responds to commands for Apple Music with “Voice actions aren’t available for that app.” Update 2/26: In a comment to VentureBeat, Google says that it has “nothing to announce regarding updates to Google Home.” Apple Music has since been removed from the list of supported streaming services. Once launched, you’ll be able to use Hey Google voice commands to stream songs, playlists, and the rest of your library from Apple Music. This includes playback on Google Home and other third-party Assistant speakers, Smart Displays, and Android TV. iOS Android Android Google Assistant on iOS already features the ability to accept voice commands and play Apple Music locally on an iPhone or iPad. Once full Apple Music support is live, Android users can set it up by heading to Assistant settings > Services tab > Music, while iOS users can visit the Google Home app > Settings > Music (under Google Assistant services at the bottom of the list). Apple Music support on Google Home follows the streaming service coming to Amazon Alexa last year. One workaround in the past involved streaming music over Bluetooth to any Google Assistant speaker. Of course, voice commands provide a more seamless experience. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:<doc-sep>Apple Music's brief appearance in the Google Home app earlier this week was due to a software bug, a Google spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg. Specifically, we've been told that the Google Assistant and Google Home apps share various settings for music services. Due to a bug, Google opened up the ‌Apple Music‌ setting more broadly than it intended, including to Google Home app users. In an earlier statement, a Google spokesperson said "‌Apple Music‌ is currently only available for Google Assistant users on mobile phones. We have nothing to announce regarding updates to Google Home." Back in December, ‌Apple Music‌ became available on Amazon's range of Echo speakers, so there was hope that the service would be expanding to Google Home speakers too. Many other music services are available on Google Home, including Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, Google Play Music, and YouTube Music. Of course, ‌Apple Music‌ could launch on Google Home eventually, and the two companies could be simply hiding their tracks. ‌Apple Music‌ is currently available on iOS, Android, Apple Watch, Apple TV, HomePod, and Amazon Echo and Sonos speakers. ‌Apple Music‌ can also be controlled with the Google Assistant app on iOS devices.<doc-sep>
Apple Music is apparently coming to Google Home speakers, yet another sign that Apple's famous walled garden is beginning to show cracks and that Apple is putting its services in front of as many people as possible as hardware device sales slow. An option to link an Apple Music account appeared this week in the Google Home app, which is used to manage Google's smart home devices like speakers and Nest cameras. But the sign-in process for Apple Music doesn't work in the app yet. It was spotted on Tuesday morning before Google pulled it from the app later in the afternoon. It seems likely that Google updated the Home app with the Apple Music option before it was ready. The move might help persuade people to switch to Apple Music from other services, at least among those who own a Google Home as opposed to Apple's more expensive HomePod speaker. The HomePod costs $349 — though retail partners often sell it for around $299 — while the Google Home Mini is much more approachable at $50. Google Home already supports a variety of streaming music services, including YouTube Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora and Deezer. Until now, Apple appeared to be the big holdout from Google's smart speakers, which allow people to ask Google Assistant to play music throughout their home. "Apple Music is currently only available for Google Assistant users on mobile phones," a Google spokesperson told CNBC. "We have nothing to announce regarding updates to Google Home." Google's larger market share in smart speakers gives Apple an opportunity to boost subscriptions to Apple Music. Apple already offers an Android version of Apple Music, which has opened its music service up to the more than 2 billion monthly active devices that run Google's operating system. Now, those users, who are the most likely to own a Google Home, can play their songs in more places. This is a new trend for Apple, as it begins to put more of a focus on services over device sales. At CES in early January, for example, Apple announced that iTunes was coming to Samsung TVs, which would let you purchase and stream movies and TV shows from Apple. Apple Music also recently launched on Amazon Echo devices. Apple was not available for comment.