Google Assistant's sole remaining advantage over the search giant's AI-powered Gemini tool was the option to control music. Now, that's no longer the case as Google rolls out its new YouTube Music Gemini extension to the public.
As first spotted by 9to5Google, the extension lets users connect YouTube Music to the AI bot, which is Google's attempt to compete with ChatGPT, to easily access their library of tunes with several prompts. However, the company states this account must be the same for both Gemini and YouTube Music to work.
Users can ask Gemini for music by song, album, artist, playlist, genre, and more. For example, you can ask Gemini to "play me rock music radio" or "play music that I like," which plays songs from your Liked Music playlist. Then, Gemini will show a card that displays album art, artist name, song duration, and play count.
In addition to finding and playing music, you'll also be able to control playback and play podcasts on YouTube. Below is a full list of available prompt formats.
- Find [song name] by [artist name]
- Find the album [album title] by [artist name]
- Find [playlist name] playlist
- Find [genre] music
- Search for songs similar to [song name] by [artist name]
- Find the song that goes [song lyrics]
- Find the [song name] music video
- Start a radio based on the song [song name]
- Search for [artist name] songs
How to turn on Gemini's YouTube Music extension
The extension is disabled by default, but you can activate it on desktop and mobile by visiting gemini.google.com/extensions or hopping into the Gemini app's extensions settings. Alternatively, if you have one of the best Android phones, you can ask Gemini to play music, wait for the pop-up to show up and follow the on-screen instructions to connect.
Note that by enabling this extension, Gemini will be able to access your preferences, playlists, and playback history. Google says the YouTube Music extension only works with English prompts "for now," implying that more language options could be available in the future.
Google still appears to be ironing out the kinks with the YouTube Music Gemini extension on desktop. When you ask it to play a specific song, Gemini responds: "I can't assist you with playing media yet, but I can provide you with a link to the song on YouTube Music."
The rollout comes a few weeks after eagle-eyed Android users uncovered Gemini's YouTube Music extension ahead of Google I/O 2024. Looking ahead, a whole suite of Google apps are expected to get Gemini extensions, including Calendar, Keep, Tasks, and Utilities.
