Google Play Music gets a major overhaul

PanARMENIAN.Net - Google’s approach to software increasingly centers around personalized recommendations and assistance. It will filter your email and surface only the messages you need to see, pop up alerts if your train line goes out of service, and even chat with you about the latest scores and trades from your favorite sports team. Today that same approach comes to Google’s music service, Google Play, which is being revamped to focus on contextual recommendations, The Verge reports.

Using machine learning and clues like location, activity, and weather, the app tries to serve up a smorgasbord of playlists that will match your mood and moment. "At a high level, Google’s mission is to make the world of information really accessible and useful to people," said Elias Roman, the Lead Product Manager for Google Play Music. Google Now might do that by suggesting you leave for the airport early to avoid bad traffic on the highway. "There is a role for Google to play in music that is similar."

Every time you open the app, it completely refreshes what you see, trying to serve the perfect selection. Tapping the app on Saturday night brings options for a cocktail party playlist and some serious dancehall jams. When opening it again late Sunday afternoon, a playlist for relaxing at home and another for cooking dinner surfaced. The interface, based on cards, feels a lot like Google Now, and so does the approach to just in time doses of pertinent information, in this case the tunes you need.