iOS 26: Eight New Features in Apple Music

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Apple has made several updates to the Apple Music app in iOS 26, and it has AutoMix, which has become one of the most popular additions. ‌Apple Music‌ also features the Liquid Glass redesign like the rest of Apple's apps, along with new translation features and other quality of life improvements.

iOS 26 Music Glass Feature

AutoMix

AutoMix is an upgrade to the crossfade feature in ‌Apple Music‌, and it is designed to provide more seamless song transitions. It transitions from one song to another as the song that's playing ends, using time stretching and beat matching for an undetectable shift.

apple music automix ios 26
Apple says that AutoMix is meant to work like a DJ, with songs transitioning at the "perfect moment" based on an on-device analysis of the key and tempo of the music.

AutoMix can be enabled when opening up the ‌Apple Music‌ app for the first time after installing ‌iOS 26‌.

The feature isn't perfect and it works better with some genres than others, but it is a work in progress that Apple is improving over time. AutoMix is not an Apple Intelligence feature, but it does require an ‌Apple Music‌ subscription.

Lyric Translation

If you're listening to a song in a different language, you can now open up the lyrics and get a real-time translation so you know what it's about. The translated lyrics are displayed alongside the original lyrics.

ios 26 lyrics translation

Lyric Pronunciation

For songs in another language, you can also get a phonetic pronunciation guide for singing them aloud, which is useful when taking advantage of the ‌Apple Music‌ Sing karaoke feature.

ios 26 music app lyrics pronunciation

Pinned Favorites

There's now an option to pin up to six playlists, albums, artists, or songs to the top of the ‌Apple Music‌ library.

pin apple music app ios

Playlist Folders

Playlists can be organized into folders in the iOS ‌Apple Music‌ app, a feature that has previously been limited to the Mac.

music playlist folders

Home Screen Widgets

There are new Home Screen widgets that show your pinned ‌Apple Music‌ content. There's a medium-sized widget and a larger widget for pins, along with a new large Live Radio widget.

ios 26 live radio

Animated Lock Screen Artwork

The Lock Screen now features full-screen animated art for the Now Playing widget while music is playing.

liquid glass music lock screen

Karaoke Microphone

tvOS 26 and ‌iOS 26‌ turn the iPhone into a wireless microphone for karaoke on the Apple TV. When using ‌Apple Music‌ Sing, each participant can sing through their ‌iPhone‌, queue songs up, and send emoji reactions.

apple music sing tvos26

Read More

More on the features that are available in ‌iOS 26‌ can be found in our iOS 26 roundup. ‌iOS 26‌ will launch in September.

Related Roundups: iOS 26, iPadOS 26
Related Forum: iOS 26

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Top Rated Comments

daabido Avatar
daabido
17 weeks ago
I was hoping one of the features would be being less **** at recommending music. Hope springs eternal I guess.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ppdix Avatar
ppdix
17 weeks ago
Auto Mix is the best thing that has ever happened to Apple Music!
It works incredibly well. Much better than any old fashioned crossfade.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PPGMD Avatar
PPGMD
17 weeks ago
Have they fixed Soundcheck? That has been broken for years.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
freysie Avatar
freysie
17 weeks ago
Love this list of new features!! One thing, though: … no Handoff?

Legit, why do you all think there is no Handoff for Apple Music?

I know you can tap HomePods with your phone or whatever, but why not actual Handoff between macOS and iOS, etc.?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HVDynamo Avatar
HVDynamo
17 weeks ago

It's great that it's well received. I'm not a subscriber so don't have access to it, so 12 second crossfade it is for me, and I'm really happy with that. Comparing automix to crossfade may be unfair given they're designed to do things differently ?
I really don't understand the appeal of either. I tried crossfade, and it annoyed the crap out of me.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
phuklok1 Avatar
phuklok1
17 weeks ago
why can we not have a parametric or at least graphic equalizer at this point? Why are we still stuck with truly useless presets from the very first iPod? In a supposedly high-end device, why do I need to fiddle with settings every time I connect by Bluetooth to a different audio device? Why can it not remember my settings for each (car, speaker, headphone, earbuds, etc)

Why do we rely on earbud manufacturers to hopefully put some type of EQ in their driver instead of having it in the OS??

It’s such a basic feature I mean stereos have had this since the 70s. MP3 players (except apple) had this from the 90s. Even freaking walkmans from the 80s. I’m sure it will take a single software engineer about an hour to add this, so why don’t we have it? It’s embarrassing that an audio player in 2025 still lacks this feature.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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