Although Apple did not discuss Apple Music during the WWDC keynote, there are some changes to the app under iOS 16.
The changes to Apple Music start on the new iOS 16 lock screen, where the Apple Music Now Playing widget is now located at the bottom of the display. This fits with iOS 16's new focus on decluttering the lock screen and moving all notifications to the bottom of the screen, where you can hide them throughout the day if you get too many.
Apple Music is part of live activities
For Apple Music, the lock screen player offers all the expected controls for playback and connecting AirPods or other headphones. You can also expand the controls to a full-screen view, which enlarges the album art of the currently playing song and becomes your new iPhone lock screen image. This is part of iOS 16's new Live Activity feature, which aims to allow users to stay up to date in real time through various app widgets placed directly on the lock screen. For example, you can follow live updates of sports games, workouts, ride-sharing apps, food orders, and more.
Favorite Artists
You can now add artists to your "Favorite Artists" list by navigating to their artist profile on Apple Music and tapping a new star button at the top of the page. Apple says this will give you better recommendations and notifications about new releases from that artist. Originally, Apple Music had a similar feature that let you follow artists to get updates about their music and sometimes upcoming releases. The new "Favorite Artists" feature seems to be more streamlined and focuses on improving push notifications and recommendations for your favorite artists.
sorting of playlists
Apple Music in iOS 16 lets you sort playlists by various criteria: normal playlist order, title, artist, album, or release date. You can also choose ascending or descending order for each of these categories. This is a notable addition, as Apple Music doesn't have automatic sorting options. Every time you add a new song to a playlist, it ends up at the bottom of the list while the oldest songs are at the top. If you want to sort it, you have to manually drag it to the desired location. The new feature lets you reverse the traditional playlist order so that new songs appear at the top. These sorting features can be found in the ellipsis menu in the top right corner of the playlist screen in iOS 16.
iOS 16: UI changes
Finally, there are a few small changes to the user interface of the full-screen player in the Apple Music app. Apple has updated the user interface in a subtle way and, among other things, introduced slightly thicker playback and volume bars. Whether your device is compatible with the new software, you can find out here. (Image: Apple)
