What you need to know

• A developer managed to port the YouTube Music app to a Wear OS 2.0 smartwatch.
• However, the modified app has poor optimization and a clunky interface.
• There are some safety and security concerns arising from the port as well.

Google finally launched YouTube Music on Wear OS smartwatches last month, but the app is compatible only with Wear OS 3, leaving older smartwatches out in the cold. Now, a developer has found a way to work around that limitation.

Alexandru Pop, a software developer, has been able to port the smartphone version of the YouTube Music app to a smartwatch running Wear OS 2.0 (via XDA Developers). However, the ported version lacks proper optimization. For example, it doesn't adjust to the smaller display of the smartwatch, so some areas of the app don't fit well in the screen.

Even after the developer made some changes to its UI, the app still fell short of the necessary scaling in order to display properly on the screen. This limitation affected the way you access some of the app's functions. Nonetheless, it works as expected.

It marks the first time that YouTube Music made its way to the legacy version of the smartwatch OS in an unofficial manner. Last month, it was discovered that sideloading the app onto older smartwatches such as the Moto 360 won't work.

For this particular port, the developer sideloaded the YouTube Music Vanced version along with a companion app. It contains some modifications to let you sign into your Google account in the tampered app without worrying about the company's restrictions.

There's no guarantee, though, that the process is safe and secure. One recommendation to prevent any consequences is to use a secondary account when logging into the modified app.

At present, YouTube Music works only with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 series, which is one of the best Android smartwatches.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

The Galaxy Watch 4 is the first smartwatch to run Samsung's new Wear OS, and it comes with a slew of useful features, a long battery life, and MIL-STD-810G compliance. Because of its powerful chip, it also provides seamless integration and improved app experiences.