My Android device has become my music player of choice. It’s been great, but there’s one little problem – no gapless playback. It’s especially annoying after living five years with an iPod Nano that could handle gapless playback with no problems. It’s 2012, and it’s kind on maddening that Google still hasn’t worked what should be a basic feature in all music playback software.

Well, Google has finally updated its Google Play Music app with the much requested gapless playback, but only 2.7 percent of Android users will be able to take advantage of it. In the latest release of the Google Play Music app, gapless playback is now available only to those running Android 4.1 or later. Those of us stuck on previous Android releases will just have to deal with a short few second pause in between tracks.

Gapless playback isn’t the only addition to the app, however, as Google has introduced a number of updates to its music app today. Many of the additions apply to Android 2.2 and up so there’s a little something for everyone. The rest of the updates include:

The offline playback and auto-generated mixes are of particular interest to music lovers who prefer to use Google’s app. iTunes remains one of the best music services out there so it’s nice to see Google at least trying to improve its app to the level that’s expected from music apps today.

There’s still a ways to go, but Google may yet emerge as a major player in the music scene. The app just keeps getting better, and Google keeps getting more content for Google Play as it moves into more countries. Sooner or later, the hardware wars are going to be non-existent, and Google will be battling Apple over content instead of patents. It’s best that both companies get as much of the market as they can now before it comes to that.

[h/t: Engadget]