Image Credit: 9to5Mac

While visually Apple Music will be largely the same, updates to the backend should significantly improve performance on the desktop app.

After releasing macOS Monterey 12.1 to the public earlier this week, Apple have just dropped the macOS 12.2 beta to developers. While there are no release notes, 9to5Mac notes some key differences to the Apple Music app.

In 2019, with the release of macOS Catalina 10.15, iTunes was replaced by dedicated Music, TV, Podcasts and Books apps. This was to kill off iTunes, which over the years had become bloated, trying to achieve too many different tasks. This also helped promote Apple Music and streamline the experience across macOS, iOS and tvOS. While the then new Music app had a different name, it retained the same iTunes backend. To this day both Music and TV use Web Views, which essentially loads web content into the app. While this works, it doesn’t provide the fluid experience of a native app. In macOS 12.2, we will finally see both Music and TV backed by macOS’ native interface framework AppKit.

The overhaul to the backend of Music is supported by JET, Apple’s technology that turns web content into native apps. While some part of the Music app were already native such as the music library, other elements like scrolling, trackpad gestures and searching for songs in Apple Music should now be much smoother, responsive and faster, with results displayed in a native interface rather than a webpage. The screenshots below comparing the old with the new show some missing interface effects, as Apple continue to rebuild the app.

Image Credit: 9to5Mac