New Apple Music updates coming to iOS 17, iPadOS 17, tvOS 17 and macOS Sonoma
Announced at WWDC this week and discovered by developers, Apple Music is getting some much needed updates in the fall across platforms.
WWDC announced the new features coming to Apple’s operating systems in the fall, as well as the release of the developer previews. With the beta out for a few days now, users have been diving into Apple’s first party apps to discover all. While WWDC highlighted most of the biggest updates, developers have discovered a few new hidden gems in Apple Music.
SharePlay in the car
Passing the AUX is dead. With SharePlay in the car, passengers can easily and wirelessly add music to the cue. On iOS 17, when the driver’s iPhone is connected to CarPlay, passengers’ iPhones will automatically suggest joining the session. CarPlay will display how many users are connected and who cued the playing track. What’s more is that only the driver’s iPhone needs the Apple Music subscription. Passengers can control playback without a subscription.
We’ve seen a similar feature on Spotify, although not driving specific, with Group Sessions. This feature requires all participants to be Spotify Premium subscribers.
Collaborative Playlists
Although not mentioned in WWDC, Apple’s iOS 17 press release and preview also announced Collaborative Playlists. While Spotify has had this one for as long as I can remember, it’s nice to see Apple Music embrace the feature too. Now groups of friends or playlist curators can add, reorder and remove songs, as well as invite more people to join the playlist and react to song choices in Now Playing with emojis. The screenshot from Apple shows four collaborators, with each track showing the Memoji of the collaborator who added it. The people icon in the top right seems to be how you manage who has access.
Collaborative Playlists is coming to iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and macOS Sonoma. Unfortunately this one won’t be available with the release of iOS/iPadOS 17 or macOS Sonoma, with Apple saying “Collaborative Playlists will be available in an update later this year.”
Crossfade
Spotify and iTunes have had the ability to smoothly trasition between track for the years. Now, finally iPhones will get crossfade too with the release of iOS 17. Crossfade was discovered by developers with the beta, although some users are reporting this one to be buggy at present.
Interface changes
Apple Music’s user interface is remaining the same for the most part, with slight tweaks here and there. Lyrics on tracks with lyric-data that isn’t time-synched will now be shown bigger. The Now Playing screen will now show full-screen animated artworks for supported albums, rather than in a traditional square box. When the Now Playing window is minimized, the control interface now hovers at the bottom of the screen, providing a depth effect. You will still have access to the play/pause and skip buttons.
Apple Music Sing integrates Continuity Camera
Finally, another feature missed out of the event, but highlighted in a press release, tvOS 17 integrates Continunity Camera with Apple’s karaoke feature, Apple Music Sing. With an iPhone docked horizontally, users will be able to see themselves on the TV as they sing and add fun filters too.
iOS 17, iPadOS 17, tvOS 17 and macOS Sonoma are available today to Apple Developer Program members on developer.apple.com. The public release will be available in the fall.
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