Google Play Music hits 5bn downloads, but is this as good as it gets?

Google Play Music has been the official Google music streaming service for years, and it’s just hit a landmark figure on the Play Store.

The music app has reached five billion downloads on the Play Store, according to Android Police. This reportedly makes it the sixth app to cross this mark, following Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Search, and YouTube.

It’s worth noting that all these apps are pre-installed on Android devices, boosting the listed download figures in the process.

Unfortunately, this could be the apex of Google Play Music’s growth, as Google will pre-install YouTube Music instead of Play Music on future Android phones. Google confirmed the news on the YouTube blog last month, saying all new devices launching with Android 10 and Android Pie will offer the app out of the box.

Hopefully Google keeps Play Music around until YouTube Music achieves feature parity at the very least. Right now, the new app lacks Play Music’s cloud locker functionality, the ability to halt autoplay, and sleep timer functionality, to name a few features.

What would it take for you to use YouTube Music? Let us know in the comments!