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Pandora has updated its Apple Watch app, making it a truly standalone experience for listeners.
You can now stream your favorite tunes – no iPhone required. Pandora is one of the first music services to offer this feature. Other services like Apple Music need listeners to pre-load music onto the Apple Watch to listen while the phone is out of range.
“Leave the phone at home and bring all of your listening with you thanks to our updated Apple Watch app,” the update reads. “Now, you can stream your favorite music and podcasts straight from your wrist – no phone required.”
The new Pandora app requires an Apple Watch running watchOS 6 or higher.
Apple Watch support is a key strategy in updating the Pandora experience. In 2019, the company completely redesigned the Apple Watch app. That update included offline playback support for users to pre-load their chosen music and playlists.
Pandora also overhauled its macOS app around this time. The overhaul included new tech called station Modes. These six modes offer new ways to listen to Pandora Music. Each mode has a different music function and responds to thumbs up in different ways.
Pandora station modes include the default ‘My Station’ and five other modes. ‘Crowd Faves’ plays only the most popular tracks. ‘Discovery’ brings artists and tracks to the front that wouldn’t usually play on the station. ‘Deep Cuts’ focuses on lesser-known tracks by artists that would typically play on the station. ‘Newly Released’ plays only the newest music from artists on the station, if available.
‘Artist Only’ mode allows to listen to music only from the artist used to seed the Pandora station. Due to licensing requirements, the ‘Artist Only’ mode requires a Pandora Premium subscription to enjoy. Free listeners can activate a temporary Pandora Premium session by viewing an ad.