Your iPhone's Music App Gets a Handful of Upgrades With iOS 26

Apple releases iOS 26 exist September 15 Update brings Call Screening,,,,, New ringtone And a lot Hidden features for you iPhone. The update also brings some new features to Apple Music ($11 per month) Just like a new cross-finish feature called Automix and Lyric Translation.

Since its release a decade ago, Apple Music has become one of the largest music streaming platforms. according to StatistaAs of June 2024$12 per month) in terms of the number of paid subscribers, 276 million So, Apple still has some catch-up work to do in the music streaming space.

I spent some time testing out new features of Apple Music to see if they can help Apple close the gap. Some of these features are great, but only for limited song selections, which may suppress your interest.

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Automix is ​​an upgraded Crossfade feature that incorporates one song into the next. The feature attempts to extend and match the rhythm of the song, so the transition between the two songs is more seamless.

After spending time listening to Apple Music in iOS 26, I found that the success of the feature is very dependent on the songs you are listening to and doesn’t seem to always work. When I noticed the car’s work, I didn’t like it because the songs didn’t work together for the most part. For example, Kate Bush Runs Enter Marshmallow and happier in Bastille It’s a very strange transition.

This feature works best in pop and rap songs, but even then, the mixing isn’t always right. The feature stretches and twisted beats match the upcoming song, which makes me think there is something wrong with the song.

Automix isn’t particularly used with many of the rock and alternative songs I’ve heard. With these songs, it sounds like a traditional Crossfade feature.

Automix will use it automatically after downloading iOS 26, but you can disable it if you don’t like the feature.

1. Tap Apple Music.
2. Start playing music.
3. Click on the song at the bottom of the screen.
4. Click the three dots and dash symbols in the lower right corner of the screen.

5. Click the Automix symbol near the upper right corner of the screen – which looks like a Venn diagram – to enable the feature.

If you don’t like Automix and want to disable it, click the same symbol again to turn it off as above.

Lyrics translation and pronunciation

With iOS 26, Apple’s music app can help you translate songs and even pronounce them correctly in their native language. If you are a K-pop fan or Netflix, this is a handy feature KPOP Demon Hunter – But don’t speak Korean and want to know what your favorite song is.

Here are some lyrics translation and pronunciation guides in some songs.

1. Tap Apple Music.
2. Start playing music.
3. Click on the song at the bottom of the screen.
4. Click on the speech bubble in the lower left corner of the screen with quotes.
5. Click on the symbol, there are two voice bubbles inside.

This will present a menu with options Show pronunciation and Show translation. tapping Show pronunciation Then, put the voice guide in the song under the lyrics and tap Show translation Translate the lyrics and place the translation below the corresponding lyrics.

However, these features are limited in which language they are in, so Apple Music may not always show menus to enable them.

This is All languages Lyrics translation cooperate with it.

• English to Chinese (simplified).
• English to Japanese.
• Korean to Chinese (simplified).
• Korean to English.
• Koreans vs Japanese.
• Spanish to English.

Here is a guide to pronunciation of languages.

• The Japanese were Romanized.
• Koreans were Romanized.
• Koreans go to katakana.
• Cantonese to jyutping.
• Chinese (simplified) to pinyin.
• Chinese (traditional) to pinyin.
• Hindi is Romanized.
• The Punjabi were Romanized.

These features are not available even if the languages ​​are covered in the list above. For example, Apple Music will not translate some baby metal songs. That was so bad because I wondered why this group wanted chocolate very much.

PIN playlists, albums, etc.

If you save a lot of playlists, albums, artists, etc. in Apple Music, it’s easy to lose your favorites. But in iOS 26, you can pin your favorite music to the top of the library. Then, long press and click the music you want to pin pin [Section] – So if you are in the playlist, the option will read PIN playlist. Now, the music will appear at the top of the section.

Playlist folder

The Mac version of Apple Music allows you to organize playlists into folders, and iOS 26 brings this feature to your iPhone. In the playlist section of your Apple Music library, just click Plus(+) Sign in the upper right corner of the screen and click Create a new folder. Name your folder, and you can then drag and drop the playlist into it.

Animation lock screen artwork

When listening to Apple Music, now some album glue will be animate on your lock screen. To view animated artwork, you must click on the album cover in the lock screen media player while the song is played.

Please note that not all albums have animated artwork. In these cases, when you click on the album cover, the album cover will expand and take up most of the lock screen.

It’s more of an aesthetic change than a practical one, but it’s still tidy to see some artwork come to life when you like the album.

New home screen widget

The iOS update also introduces some new Apple Music home screen widgets. These widgets include medium and large widgets for fixed music, as well as large real-time RF widgets.

The only feature that might attract me to Apple Music

If you don’t subscribe to Apple Music, there are only a few new features that may cause you to switch to the streaming service: Lyrics Translation and Pronunciation Features.

The new translation and pronunciation features are unique and I’m very interested in how Apple will build on them. Japanese metal bands are very fun, but I don’t know that most of the Esprit D’Airs are singing. Silver Leaf I want to know.

I can’t read Japanese either, so checking the lyrics of these bands will not help. Therefore, the pronunciation function is an easy way to learn songs without having to learn new languages ​​and without having to learn Japanese.

However, Apple Music’s translation feature is only available for certain songs at this time, and in which language they can be translated into. So the feature can be improved and I will be interested in how much time Apple invests in improving this feature.

As for other features, Spotify already has features like Automix and fixed playlists. A reddit user Discovering that Apple’s iOS 26 API will allow Spotify to bring animated artwork to the lock screen, I would be shocked if Spotify didn’t incorporate that feature into its app anytime soon.

you can Create a playlist folder in Spotify But you have to make them on a desktop application or web player at this point. You can access them on mobile apps, but the fact that you can create playlist folders in the Apple Music Mobile app is an acceleration. However, this is not big enough for me to switch.

If you’re still thinking about switching to Apple Music from Spotify, Apple Music is slightly cheaper ($11 per month compared to $12 per month) could be a bigger incentive.

More information about iOS 26, here’s My comments on the operating systemhow to reduce Liquid glass What’s happening in updates and how to enable them Call Screening On your device. You can also view our iOS 26 cheat sheet.