Google Play Music Desktop Player provides an interface for external applications to determine the currently played song and playback status.

This interface is provided through a locally hosted Web Socket. In a standard release this WebSocket is hosted on port 5672. Any site or application should be able to connect to ws://localhost:5672 and use the API.

Message format

All messages are sent from the Web Socket Server in the following format

{
  "channel": "channel_name",
  "payload": { ...data }
}

Protocols

Connecting - The process for authenticating and connecting to a player

Controlling - The process for controlling the player remotely

Channels

API Version - The current version of the WebSocket API

Lyrics - The lyrics for the current song

Play State - Indicates if the player is in a paused or playing state

Playlists - The users playlists available in GPM

Queue - The users currently active song queue

Rating - The rating of the currently playing song

Repeat - The player’s current repeat mode

Search Results - The users most recent search results

Shuffle - The player’s current shuffle mode

Song - The song currently playing in GPMDP

Time - The current and total time values of the current song