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It’s the small things, sometimes. I wrote not long ago about the aggravating failings and shortcomings I see in YouTube Music when compared to the perfectly-fine Google Play Music service it is forcibly replacing. Though my absolute #1 gripe is still present (there’s no cast button in the web player), another common, everyday connection issue has been solved in a recent update. Well, solved for me at least, so I’d assume many other users have found the same solace.
Bluetooth car display fixed
In that earlier post, I bemoaned the fact that YouTube Music couldn’t seem to get along with my vehicle’s built-in stereo display. Though I’ve never run into issue before with any other phone using Google Play Music (including the OnePlus 7T I’m using curently), YouTube Music failed to display the current track info in my 2016 Honda for some odd reason.
I came across a Reddit thread that explained the process for changing your Bluetooth AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) to the older 1.3 versus the now-standard 1.4 and made the switch with the expectation that this would be a work-around for the shortcoming. It worked for about 5 minutes before it began failing again, so I just moved back to 1.4 and tried out Spotify for a few weeks. The grass isn’t always greener and Spotify comes with it’s share of odd choices and aggravations, too, so I cancelled it and figured I’d just live with the shortcomings of YouTube Music once it was forced on me later this year.
I’ve been using it off and on in the past week or so and out of nowhere, my car stereo finally shows my track info on a consistent basis! I’m not sure which update this happened in, but I’m currently running version 3.85.50. At some point along the way, this seems to have been rectified, and I am very, very glad for it. While this was the second-most aggravating part of moving to YouTube Music, it is a massive step forward for not just myself, but for many users who are begrudgingly making the transition. Now, about that cast button, Google…
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