Photo credit: Apple
While the Apple Vision Pro headset dominated the news cycle this week, Apple Music is getting new features in iOS 17 to compete with Spotify.
Apple Music is Finally Added the ability to create shared playlists in iOS 17. Apple didn’t spend much time discussing the feature, but a screenshot shows four people working on a “Game Night” playlist. Each song shows who added it to the playlist along with their avatar – similar to the current Friends Mix feature. Collaborative playlists have been a killer feature for Spotify users, Twitch streaming communities, DnD night and more.
Crossfade is finally coming to Apple Music in iOS 17 too. It’s a feature that Apple users have been asking for for years, making it one of the most notable additions this year. Switch smoothly between songs so the music never stops when you workout, commute, etc. However, this feature is currently available to everyone in the iOS developer beta 9to5Mac reports The function causes crashes for the time being.
Apple also rolled out some UI tweaks for Apple Music to beautify the music player. It now includes animated graphics for full-screen albums, similar to Spotify’s Canvas feature. The other change makes the album art blend seamlessly into the bottom of the music player.
Finally, Apple is also making some changes to CarPlay to allow passengers to add music to the playlist using SharePlay. Developers with access to iOS 17 also report that lyrics that don’t sync now have a larger, more legible font that’s easier to read.
A new star button on the music player has also appeared in the images shared by Apple. However, this icon does not appear in the current version of the iOS 17 beta available to developers. The button looks similar to the artist pages and allows users to be notified of new releases from their favorite artists.