Play Music's v5.8 rolled out last month with a slew of fixes and improvements to make the app fit better with Material Design's guidelines and provide some added functionality like biography and history for artists, and a previous song button in the collapsed notification. The app has since seen a few incremental changes, but the latest v5.8.1836R got a rare treatment from Google: an official changelog. So it must be something important, right?

Well, yes and no. If you don't subscribe to Google Play Music All Access (or Unlimited as it's being referred to recently), you may not notice any significant difference in the app. If you do, however, you will see that search results now return both songs from Play Music and videos from YouTube, providing a central way to find the music you need without having to hop back to the YouTube app to benefit from Music Key. For those who don't have a subscription, the changelog also mentions improved album art handling and the ability to see all albums in your library without clicking on "More." Personally, I don't think the latter is new — I have been able to see all my albums for a few versions already.

v5.8.1836R

  • Subscribers can now find YouTube Music Videos in search
  • You can see all albums in My Library without needing to click 'More'
  • We've improved the way we handle album art to make the app run more smoothly

We're not sure if there are any other modifications or additions to the app, but do let us know if you spot something. We'll take a more thorough look at the code later and update if we find any other significant changes. If this version hasn't gone live for you yet, and it most likely hasn't because Google likes extending its staged rollouts for days if not weeks, you can grab it below.

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The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

File name: com.google.android.music-5.8.1836R.1787745-1836-minAPI14.apk

Version: 5.8.1836R.1787745 (1836)

MD5: 5735aa55b690eba07187e1e4ac001e59

YouTube Music Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
4.5
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