Instagram now lets you add songs in posts to your Spotify account

Image: Instagram & Spotify

Music discovery is a big part of social media these days. Instagram might be slightly late to the party, but at least, now you can add the songs you hear from posts and Reels straight to your Spotify playlist. If you like a song in a post, tap on the title to go to the audio preview page. You'll know you have the feature if you spot that Add button with the Spotify logo beside the audio scrubber. You will need to link your Spotify account with your Instagram first. But once that is set up, it'll be a one-tap process to add songs to your Liked Songs playlist.

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Spotify Offline Backup lets Premium users listen to songs offline even without downloads

Image: Spotify

If you're a Spotify Premium user and forgot to download your favourite playlist or you're looking to save on data or phone storage, Spotify is giving you the option to listen offline sans downloads with the new Offline Backup feature. It takes your recently streamed and queued tracks and compiles these songs into a playlist. It includes tracks stored on your device as part of your regular listening sessions (a.k.a. cache).

Spotify lets you filter and sort songs if you're looking for a "certain vibe." You can arrange it by artist, mood, and genre. Like its other playlists, Offline Backup evolves as you listen, so there's always something new there.

Offline Backup will appear automatically in the Home feed when you're offline. You just need to listen to more than five songs recently and have offline listening enabled. You can find this feature under Settings > Data Saving and Offline > Offline Listening / Offline Access. You can add this playlist to Your Library for easier access.

Offline Backup is rolling out globally, so you should have it once you've updated your app to the latest version. It comes to Android and iOS, including Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

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Google tests Gemini Live support on Android Auto

Photo: Google

Google looks like it's working on some Android Auto features. One of them brings Gemini Live to cars and another adds support for "local media." A look at Android Auto's code shows a new string directly referencing a codename associated with Gemini and the ability to "start conversation." But it doesn't look like it's live yet. There are also added assets like "star" used for Gemini spotted in this version of Android Auto.

9to5Google reports Google is working on supporting car radio control through Android Auto. There are clues that it will support adding and removing "Favorite" stations through an app on Android Auto. And there are hints it will support "local media" from your car, too. There are also new icons for local media playback and radio but these haven't gone live yet. We have no idea if and when Google will roll out these features. But we're keeping our eye on it.

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Google Messages for Android gets a new look

Old vs. new look (Image: 9to5Google)

Google Messages for Android received a subtle but noticeable update: a bolder send button. Before this, the paper airplane icon blended into the conversation's background. Now, it pops against it in a contrasting colour, so it's easier to spot and tap.

The background colour matches your Dynamic Colour theme or one of eight Custom Bubble options. The paper airplane icon will be light or dark, depending on the background colour, ensuring you see it. This change is rolling out to Google Messages beta users (version 20240813_00_RC00). It's a minimal but welcome improvement to make sending messages more intuitive.

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