Music streaming on Apple Watch Series 3 is a surprisingly nice feature to have

If you followed The Verge’s earlier coverage of Apple Watch Series 3 LTE, then you know that I encountered a connectivity bug during my initial tests of the watch (one that was later fixed in a software update), and that the watch launched without its promised music streaming feature.

Music streaming from a wrist watch is, both in concept and in practice, a big thing. Almost every wrist wearable we’ve tried and tested that offers “music” is really doing one of two things: it’s playing music that was locally stored or cached on the watch in advance, or it’s offering wristbased controls for music that’s actually playing on your phone. What Apple promised with the LTE-equipped Series 3 watch was true, phone-free streaming from the wrist, directly into your Bluetooth headphones.

I finally had the chance to use this over the past couple weeks. I slapped on the same Apple Watch Series 3 I tested back in September, and re-subscribed to Apple Music ($10 per month). Turns out it’s a great little feature to have.

TRUE MUSIC STREAMING FROM A WRIST WATCH IS, BOTH IN CONCEPT AND IN PRACTICE, A BIG THING

Streaming music does drain the watch’s battery life — a lot — which isn’t a surprise, but still something to be aware of. And the only way to search for brand-new stuff from the watch is to use your voice, which can be awkward. But again, this is the first time I’ve put on a smartwatch and been able to request almost any music on demand from the watch itself, no phone required.

There are two separate apps for music listening on the watch: the Music app, and a Radio app. On other Apple devices, Radio is a tab within Apple Music; here it’s its own app. The Music app is where you find your pre-synced playlists (just like you would on non-LTE Apple Watches), and where, if you’re paying $10 per month, you can pull up any other music. The Radio app is free to use, and it’s where you listen to Beats 1, Apple’s free radio station, or three nonApple streaming radio stations: ESPN, CBS, and NPR.

Having two separate Applemade music apps on the watch seems nonsensical until you start using them. Even after that, it’s still a little confusing. To the best of my knowledge, the apps are split up on the watch simply because there are too many features and tabs to cram into one smartwatch app.

When you use your voice to search for an artist or a genre — like when I would say, “Hey Siri, play Prince” or “Hey Siri, play workout music” into the watch — music will start streaming from the Radio app. When you request a specific song, like “Hey Siri, play Going Deaf,” it will play from the Music app. You might not even notice unless you’re staring at the watch’s face, but there is a handoff that happens between the two apps.

If part of your New Year’s resolution is to stare at your phone a little less (hey, we just made a video about that!), then the ability to go for a walk or run without your phone and still stream music might feel like it’s magically aligned with your goals. Could you listen to music, sans phone, before smartwatches? Yeah of course. Tiny iPods were popular for a good reason. But you couldn’t look at your iPod and shout “HEY IPOD PLAY GEORGE MICHAEL” because you suddenly felt like playing something that wasn’t stored on your iPod. With the LTE Apple Watch you can.

That doesn’t mean music requests start playing immediately every time. There is an occasional delay or pause while the watch figures out what to do. And you have to have your Bluetooth headphones connected, otherwise you’ll get a message on the watch face that indicates there’s no device capable of playback connected to the Wat ch .