You can now use Pandora on your Apple Watch without your iPhone. This means that you can listen to music and podcasts on the go, but now leave your iPhone at home. Which gives Pandora a distinct advantage over other music streaming services.

While plenty of other music streaming services have launched Apple Watch apps, the majority still need to be tethered to an iPhone. This includes Spotify, SoundCloud, and Deezer. Apple Music has been the exception to this rule. Until now.

How to Use the New Pandora App on Your Apple Watch

Pandora has launched a standalone Apple Watch app that can be used without an iPhone. The streaming service announced the new Apple Watch app in a post on The Pandora Blog, explaining that it's designed to take "the whole 'on the go' thing to the next level".

The new Pandora app means that you can listen to all of your music and podcasts without the need to have your iPhone in your pocket. Which means you can play songs, albums, stations, playlists, and podcasts, and control it all from your wrist.

You don't even need an iPhone to download the Pandora app for your Apple Watch. You can just download it from the App Store on your Apple Watch, log in to your Pandora account, and start listening to music and/or podcasts.

All Pandora users can play, pause, and skip songs, thumb-up their favorite music, and adjust the volume. Pandora Premium users can also search for and play specific artists and music. And Pandora Plus and Premium users can download music to listen to offline.

The Best Music Streaming Apps for Apple Watch Users

To be perfectly frank, more streaming services need to launch standalone Apple Watch apps that can be used without an iPhone. Otherwise there's little point in listening to music on your Apple Watch. So where Pandora is leading, we suspect others will follow.

While Apple Music and Pandora are the only two streaming services that let you use their Apple Watch apps without an iPhone, you may prefer to use an alternative. So, with that in mind, these are the best music streaming apps for Apple Watch users.