YouTube Music has a strong library thanks to all the remixes and cover versions it pulls from YouTube uploads, but it lags behind competitors like Apple Music and Spotify in so many other areas. Sure, Google is working to reach feature parity with the bigger players in music streaming by adding things like song credits and automatic offline downloads, but it's hard to imagine the service will ever catch up when it lacks something as basic as real-time song lyrics. Thankfully, it looks like the tide is finally turning.
Multiple Reddit users have spotted a redesigned Lyrics screen in the YouTube Music app for Android and iOS today (via 9to5Google). Much like Spotify, the lyrics now sync with the song in real time, so YouTube Music highlights the relevant excerpt as the words are being sung. This makes it much easier to follow along and actually understand the singer.
Previously, YouTube Music's lyrics were just a scrollable wall of text. The new style is also manually scrollable, but will re-sync with the song automatically if left alone. The font size has been increased as well, making it even easier to follow along with the song. Users who have the feature say it's available with most, if not all songs they've tried, and it can be accessed by simply tapping the Lyrics tab while listening to any track.
YouTube Music has been working towards adding this feature for several months now. In October, Google announced a partnership with Musixmatch, an industry-leading real-time lyrics provider, in order to "build even more Lyric features in the future." Then, we saw an early implementation of the feature when YouTube Music started testing real-time lyrics in its cast player in December.
The new real-time lyrics are being rolled out in a server-side update, so it's an account-based change that happens independently of your app version. It appears to be in the early stages of its rollout, and knowing Google, it could take weeks before the new lyrics menu is available to a majority of users. Even though it's version-independent, you can try your luck with the latest version from APKMirror or by updating the YouTube Music app on the Play Store.