Get The New Google Play Music App With ‘Chromecasting’ And SD Card Support Now

Google-Play-Music-Icon

Google is expected to announce a new Google Play Music update at its Android event — which kicks off in just a few minutes — but the APK has already been leaked and made available to download. In addition to SD card support (finally!), the update brings a new sharing feature called “Chromecasting.”

Chromecasting is “Google’s version of [Apple’s] AirPlay,” Android Police reports, but it works a little differently. Rather than streaming tracks over your home Wi-Fi network, it simply sends the a URL to the song in the cloud, which is then opened on the receiving device.

So it’s more like YouTube’s “Send to TV” feature than AirPlay really, and this limitation means you cannot send files stored locally — only those in the cloud.

In addition to this, Google has finally enabled the ability to store music on an SD card — rather than internal storage. However, it appears the feature hasn’t yet been activation, so you’ll need a follow a little workaround to enable it.

Android Police explains:

Do this: have something like Apex or Nova Launcher installed, so you can launch activities. That’s long press on home screen -> shortcuts -> activities.

Scroll down to Google Play Music, expand it, and pick “ui.SDCardSelectorActivity.” Tap the new shortcut on your homescreen, and you should get a list of storage locations for your music collection. I picked “card” and it seemed to work.

Again, this update hasn’t been rolled out by Google yet, and when it does it will come in phases, so you could be waiting a little while for it. But if you’re comfortable with installing APK files manually, you’ll find the file you need by clicking the source link below.