Microsoft is rolling out an update for its Groove Music app for the iPhone and iPad. It's the first such update for the streaming music app since September 2015.
Microsoft outlined what will be included in the update, which will also be available for the Android version:
- Significant improvements to product and playback reliability.
- An Explore view to learn about the most popular songs and new releases from top artists.
- Faster download of albums and songs so you can play them offline. The app still needs to be in the foreground to download music, background download coming in a future update.
- Screen resolution improvements to support today's larger screen mobile phones.
- New sorting options when viewing your collection of music.
- Much faster sign-in to the app using your Microsoft account.
Microsoft says it plans to update the app more frequently in the future.
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Reader comments
Microsoft rolling out long-awaited Groove Music update for iPhone and iPad
Finally!
Wait - what happened to the iOS app called "Groove" that was a worthy replacement for the built-in Music app? Did M$ buy it and turn it into this streaming thing?
Microsoft confirmed in February that they had bought Zikera's Groove app. MS had already changed the name of its XBox Music app to Groove sometime in 2015. So it's possible that MS may integrate some of the old Groove's features into the new Groove. (It seems that none of the streaming services has a killer feature that could be a real threat to Spotify - if MS can pull it off, more power to them.)
I am mainly a Microsoft person/fanboy and have all of my email/storage through them, I really wanted Groove to work, and will try to give it another try as I have 40 gb of free Onedrive space. However, I have to admit I fell in love with Google Play music service and cant believe the amount upload storage they give you for free. I think they allow like 50,000 of your own songs to upload for the free account (and I was so proud of my 13,000 song collection!) and I only use the free account. My paid streaming is with Spotify. With my average 20-30 gb of monthly data allowance, I can listen to my entire catalog (with a few hiccups, doesnt play FLACS very well, but plays them) anytime.