Google launches Music Beta webapp for iOS

Finally, iOS users can enjoy a sigh of relief, as Google today launched an HTML5-powered webapp for Google Music specifically for iOS 4 users, so they can now play music from their Google Music account on their iPhones or iPads. From the looks of it, this new app does look similar to the native Google Music app for Android.

This new iOS version has some pretty impressive features like the ability for music to continue to play in the background when users exit Safari, which is all controlled by the iOS music controls. Also, users can browse the artists, albums, songs, playlists, and genres in their libraries. Tracks will play in the background while browsing other parts of the library, and you can control playback with the standard iOS play, pause, and skip controls. The option to cache the music for offline use isn’t available in the webapp, and you cannot create either standard playlists or instant mixes.

The webapp has its minor downfalls like not having the access to cache the music for offline use, and you cannot create either standard playlists or instant mixes, but I’m sure Google will implement these features in no time. I find it interesting that cloud mega powers like Google and Amazon rather buck Apple’s strict App Store rules, releasing its cloud music services working on iOS through the browser.

[via TechCrunch]