YouTube Music might get group listening via Google Meet Live Sharing

Last August, Google Meet for Android introduced a feature that lets you co-watch videos on YouTube, curate a playlist on Spotify, and play games together. YouTube Music is now readying support for Google Meet Live Sharing.

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

This capability “allows all meeting participants to interact with the content that’s being shared.” In the case of YouTube, this means having the video app open for everyone (Android users for now) on a call and Meet appearing as a Picture-in-Picture window.

Everyone in the meeting can pause, rewind, and forward the video for all participants when it plays.

Version 5.42.50 of YouTube Music features a pair of strings for Live Sharing, though it could just be shared code from the main app. 

string name=”co_watch_status_bar_text”>You are live sharing in Meet</string>

string name=”co_watch_status_bar_ready_to_watch_text”>Choose content to use Live Share. Playback is synced.</string>

It describes the status bar that appears at the bottom of an app when sharing is active. “Playback is synced” is the one description we have today of how Live Sharing will work in YouTube Music, but this should be a rather straightforward capability. 

In the case of YouTube, Live Share can be activated from inside a Google Meet call, or by going to a video and opening the system Share sheet and selecting “Meet live sharing.”

Any Android app is able to integrate the Google Meet Live Sharing SDK with Heads Up!, UNO! Mobile, and Kahoot! joining YouTube and Spotify today. In the context of music, this feature gives off turntable.fm vibes.

Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.