With a new setting, YouTube Music for Android can now “automatically download recently played tracks.”
The newly added “Recently played tracks” toggle can be found in Settings > Downloads & storage for those who have a Premium membership. It is separate from the current “Smart downloads” feature, which allows for up to 500 tracks and is based on music that the app considers to be “favourites,” and was already enabled on the devices we checked.
There doesn’t seem to be a specific playlist in the Library tab for recently played tracks. They most likely show up when you long-press the “Downloads” programme shortcut on the homescreen.
The February 2023 New Features Highlights for YouTube Music noted this feature. Although Google claims it was launched in mid-January, Android users are only now starting to see it widely available.
The Recently played songs feature for YouTube Music on iOS is still in private beta. However, that same list of New Features also emphasises “bug fixes” for Android and Smart Downloads for the iPhone and iPad, which were released a year ago.
The introduction of the Live, Cover, and Remix labels under Other Performances in the Related tab of Now Playing and in search results was also verified by Google.
