At the recently concluded WWDC 2021, Apple announced some new features for its music streaming service, Apple Music. The good news for Android users is that it wasn’t going to be exclusive for iOS devices. In fact, we’re now getting an update for the Apple Music for Android app, even though it’s still in beta mode. The update brings features like Lossless and Spatial Audio updates as well as offering Automatic Crossfade. There are also some search enhancements in the library so it will be easier to find your favorite music to listen to.
Spatial audio lets you listen to music or podcast or the audio of your movie or TV show like you’re in a cinema, with the sounds coming at you from the front, sides, and rear. Once you update your Apple Music app and you have a compatible device to listen to it, you’ll have access to Spatial listening and the thousands of tracks on the app that have Dolby Atmos. You can see a Dolby Atmos badge on top of an album page to indicate if it has spatial audio and Apple Music also curated a playlist of available songs.
Meanwhile, in the settings, you can enable “Lossless Audio” in the Audio Quality menu. You will also be able to choose from the different tiers and where it applies, as per 9 to 5 Google. Your options are:
– High Efficiency: AAC with low data usage [Cellular only]
– High Quality: AAC 256 kbps
– Lossless: ALAC up to 24-bit/48 kHz
– High-Resolution Lossless: ALAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz
Your Apple Music Android app will also be able to give you Autmatic Crossfade so you can listen to songs blend into each other for up to 12 seconds for a seamless listening experience. The changelog also says there are search enhancements in the library although the only thing they mention is in-line search which should let you find music to listen to more easily. For those who like listening to better audio than the regular music streaming services, these new features will be a treat.
You will need to sign up for the beta channel to enjoy the Apple Music update. It’s not yet available to the stable version but it will eventually get there of course.
