Devices and slots
Premium is per account, not per device, and it covers a fixed number of each kind.
| Phones and tablets | TVs and computers | |
|---|---|---|
| Premium | 2 | 2 |
| Premium + Family Devices | 4 | 4 |
Family Devices is a one-off add-on that adds two of each. It needs active Premium and does nothing on its own.
Which devices hold the slots
Section titled “Which devices hold the slots”The ones already on the account. A new device gets a slot only when one of its kind is free, so an old phone in a drawer keeps its slot until you remove it. If the account ends up covering fewer devices than it holds, for example when Family Devices ends, the most recently seen ones keep their slots.
A device over the limit says so plainly. The message reads Over the limit — remove another TV to use this one, rather than degrading silently.
Seeing and removing them
Section titled “Seeing and removing them”Settings → Devices shows every device on the account once, in sections:
| Section | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Subscription devices | On a phone: how many phone and TV places your plan covers and how many are used, and Get Family devices when you could add them. On a television this sits at the top of Your devices |
| Connect a device | Enter the code another device shows, to sign it in or send it a playlist. A phone can also Show this device’s code, to pull playlists over from a device that already has them |
| Your devices | This device first, then the others, most recently seen first, each with its kind, its platform and when it was last seen |
| Recent device changes | The last few devices that were added or removed |
From Your devices you can:
- Remove a device. The app asks first. Its slot is free at once, and the removed device loses access the next time it starts, at the latest.
- Send your data to a device that is online, see Moving to another device.
- On a phone, control a television by tapping it, or wake one that is asleep with its power button, see Watch on TV.
On a television and a computer, press OK on a device (click it on a computer) for Send your data and Remove.
A removed device can be added back after 24 hours. Until then it shows when it can return, and it cannot remove other devices. An account can remove up to 10 devices a day.
To stop using a device for good, sign out on the device itself and then remove it here.
The same device twice
Section titled “The same device twice”A device can appear twice when the app on it was installed from two different places, for example from Google Play and from a file, because each install introduces itself as a new device. The older entry says so: Same name as a newer device. If it is an old install, remove it to free its place.
The app never removes it for you. Two identical phones in one family look exactly the same, and a removed device waits a day before it can come back.
What counts as which kind
Section titled “What counts as which kind”A phone or a tablet counts as a phone. An Android TV, a Fire TV, an Apple TV, a Windows PC and a Mac all count as a TV. A tablet running the television layout is still a phone slot: the layout is a preference, the hardware is not.