Version 5.3 of the Google Play Music app is flying out to Android devices right now, bringing with it... not a lot, actually. A quick look inside reveals bolded "Listen Now" text in the slide-out menu, a version update to 5.3.1316M, and not much else. But as usual, our hyper-intelligent cloud of futuristic swarming nanobots is pouring over the APK file, and there's plenty to be excited about.

What's New?

Update: Commenter Nick Saulino spotted what we didn't: there is indeed an option to save downloaded music to the SD card or internal storage. The option doesn't appear if your device has no external storage. (That's what you get for testing apps on a Nexus device.)

A guest commenter also noted that a standard share menu has been added to each track and album.

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Update: The update is live in the Play Store. Here's the full changelog:

What's New

v5.3.1316M

  • SD card support for offline music on KitKat (Experimental support on some older devices)
  • Added ability to shuffle all songs from an artist in All Access
  • Made it easy to share links of songs, artists and albums to your favorite social networks

This isn't a full teardown, but here are a few things hinted at in the new code for Google Play Music 5.3:

  • SD card downloads for All Access and/or cloud music <string name="sdcard_internal_storage_long">Internal (on this device)</string> <string name="sdcard_external_storage">%1$s %2$s External</string>
  • Sound Search playlists within Google Music <string name="sound_search_card_title">Sound search playlist</string> <string name="sound_search_card_content">"Hear a song you like while you're out and about? Tap the microphone on your home screen. Google Play identifies the song and adds it to the Sound Search playlist."</string>
  • Broader user interface changes
  • Music URL sharing <string name="music_url_share_activity_picker_title">Share via</string> <string name="music_url_track_no_result">Track currently unavailable</string>
  • Coupon support <string name="coupon_status_ok">Coupon redeemed</string> <string name="coupon_status_invalid">Coupon invalid</string>

Again, none of these new features are actually on display in the new version of the app - in fact we're hard-pressed to see any significant changes beyond the aforementioned text tweak. We'll have a comprehensive teardown post later today. If you'd like to see for yourself, check out our downloads below. The Play Store should be auto-updating to everyone over the next week or so.

Download

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-5.3.1316M.934206

Version: Android 2.3+

MD5: 1c9dd0bc789785870fea6d5754db5f88

Thanks, Steven Zeck!