Glass Can Now Access Google Play Music, Earbuds Also Available

It’s no secret that the Glass had so far, few functions that could actually enrich one’s experience and besides the possibility to record and shot life moments, few others have been remarked. One of the deal breakers of the Glass is definitely its limited functionality. However, this has begun to change since Google released the GDK, as new applications have emerged proving that along with constant software improvements and the appearance in MyGlass interface of a Glassware tab, the device can definitely pull some neat tricks.

Recently, Google has  announced the Play Music feature to the Glass list of apps and released the Stereo Earbuds for the Glass, also available in the Accessories store at the price of $85.

So now, you can also listen to your favorite music by adding to the formula ‘Ok Glass…’ the words ‘listen to…’ and then the song, artist or album you want to hear. Next, the Glass will display a ‘Live Card’ in the upper left corner, which will resume the music information. On the background you will see (if available), the cover art of the album. By simply tapping when the card is displayed, a list of basic commands is shown so that you could skip a song, pause it, modify the volume and so on.

If you decide navigating through the Glass cards, the music will continue playing while doing so. The system also allows for the ”Ok Glass” formula to be further used for new commands when in the clock screen. The music will be stopped only when the device is removed from the user’s head and when another voice command will be spoke. When the headset is placed back on or the voice command finished, the music will start playing again.

However, being in a incipient phase, the usage of this feature still raises a few issues such as highly increased battery loss due to the screen remaining open during playback. Another inconvenient is related to picking new songs, which cannot be done without initiating a new voice command for searching, while previously played songs are displayed on your timeline. As a solution you could either preset some playlists on your accounts or use the Radio command to get new music.

In just a few minutes you can install the Google Play Music feature. All you have to do is go to the Glassware menu, select the feature and then tap ‘On’. If you have more than one device on which you have set the Play Music account, you might have to Deauthorize one of them in order to add the Glass. You can do so from the Music Settings menu.

If you really want to get the best out of the experience of listening music on the Glass, you should definitely , now available in the Accessories store. Even though the $85 price seems quite hefty, at the moment there are the only earphones that fit the Glass’s special demands.

So, while there are a lot of improvements to do in order to fix the present issues, this feature comes as a breath of fresh air in the Glass environment. So, test it, enjoy it and until the Glass will be available we can only hope that this pleasure won’t affect any more the other functions of the device and drain its battery.