YouTube Music is definitely one of Google's more frequently improved apps, like we saw recently with it adopting media controls borrowed from Android 13, to help give things a more cohesive look. Not all the new stuff debuts on Android, though, and today we learn about the service testing a "dynamic queue” setting on iOS devices.
Currently, when you’re listening to radio based on a track, or the app's auto-generated queue, jumping to the next song usually just gives you more of the same — the whole idea is that YTM tries to keep its suggestions as relevant as possible. But if you're looking to more radically change things up — maybe shift to another genre — you have to select another song from YouTube Music’s library or hop on another radio.
Dynamic queue seems designed to make that sort of exploration a little easier, as shared by Redditor /u/-nuksoc/. When it's switched on, skipping a song midway would change future queued songs “based on your listening behavior.”
This could be YouTube’s Music’s attempt at replicating a Spotify-style personalized music discovery engine with a dedicated on-off switch. Even as we're in early testing, not everyone's a fan, and initial comments on Reddit (via 9to5Google) suggest the feature could ruin the mood for audiophiles with an eclectic taste, queuing up Post Malone right after Black Sabbath.
It might be safe to say this feature isn’t fully ready for prime time yet, and needs some more adjustments before it will really help expand your music discovery. Dynamic queue appears to be in testing on both iOS and in YouTube Music’s web interface for some users, where it can be toggled on and off under “Playback & restrictions.” So far, we've yet to hear any reports of it being available on the Android app.