Google Finds Music, Plays it in One of Your Installed Apps

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 23 Jun 2014

Enter a music-related query on your mobile and Google will find lots of useful info about musicians, albums, songs, and so on. Chances are you’re looking up music because you want to play music. If that is the case, you’ll be glad to know that you can tap a link and start playing music in one of the apps installed on your Android.

This sort of functionality works with the apps presented in the image at the top: Rdio, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, and YouTube.

Just last night I was having a drink with the wife when she started talking about this interesting clip featuring a young Tom Jones. She took out her Android mobile, searched for Tom Jones on Google, and then started playing the clip on her YouTube app. She could do that because Google recently introduced new functionality that works something like this: search for music, tap a link, and then start playing music in one of the apps installed on your Android.

“When you look up musicians and bands on Google, you often want to play their songs right away. Say you’re curious about your favorite pop artist’s latest hits, or you’re with friends chatting about the newest indie rock group and want to play some of their music. Starting today, when you ask Google about a musician, you can simply tap a link to play their music right in one of your installed apps,” said Jason Douglas, Group Product Manager, Google Search.

Here’s how it looks when you search for Katy Parry and tap on iHeartRadio.



At this time, the functionality presented above is restricted to Android-powered mobiles in the US.

At this time, the functionality presented above is limited to a handful of apps: Rdio, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, and YouTube.


“We’re working to expand this feature to users worldwide, with their local services like Deezer,” added Jason Douglas. “We hope all this makes finding and exploring artists and music on Google more fun now that you can listen to the music right away.”



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