Google Play Music 5.4 Brings Connected Device Management, Tweaked UI, Chromecast Bugfixes, and More–Sideload Now!

In the past week, we’ve seen quite a few significant updates to Google’s first-party mobile apps. This started with a few major updates to Maps, Search, Newsstand, Drive, and Hangouts. We then saw a rather substantial update to the YouTube mobile app, which brought the web-app essentially inline with the Android app. And then a few days later, an update to Google Search’s backend added relationship-based contact awareness in Voice Search. Now, Google has updated another one of its first party offerings: Google Play Music.

Google Play Music 5.4 packs quite a few improvements over the older version 5.3 it replaces. Previously, users had to visit the Play Music Settings webpage in order to manage their connected devices. But now, users are now finally  able to manage these devices directly from the Android application itself. This itself wouldn’t normally be a major issue. However, since Play Music only allows for 10 connected devices, adding a new device or reinstalling the Play Music app after a ROM install and full wipe often meant having to access the cumbersome web-app. Now, users can simply deauthorize connected devices in just a few clicks in the settings menu.

In addition to the mobile device management options, version 5.4 also brings a few UI tweaks. The most noticeable is undoubtedly the additional options in the application’s hamburger menu. Furthermore, the playback screen has been revised somewhat, placing the Google Cast menu right above the media playback controls. And on the topic of Google Cast, this new update also fixes a minor bug where connected Chromecast units would show up multiple times in the Google Cast menu.

Google Play Music 5.4.1409N is currently being delivered in the form of a staged roll out, which should gradually make its way to all devices through Google Play. That said, I’d bet a pretty penny that everyone reading this would like to get in on the update a bit early. In order to allow everyone to get in on the action now, as well as those living in regions without Google Play, we’ve gone ahead and mirrored the APK over on DevHost for your sideloading pleasure!

[Many thanks to Senior Member kautionwirez for the tip and APK!]

source: xdadevelopers