Although Apple did not give much time in the last WWDC 2020 keynote to the Music app for its mobile operating systems, it is nevertheless loaded with news on iOS and iPadOS 14. Some for subscribers to the streaming music service and others for the general public, Apple has included news for everyone.
So then, let’s get into the matter and review all the news that Music brings in iOS 14.
1- “For you” is now called “Listen”
The “For you” section is renamed in iOS 14, renamed “Listen”, and moves the Library to the 4th tab of the app. As before, there is our suggestion panel in Apple Music, where we can discover new themes in addition to finding compilations of our favorites.
Now with a new aesthetic, this section will show us essential lists, Apple Music shows based on our most frequent listeners as well as preselected playlists for us.
Until iOS13, when a list or disc ended, the music stopped completely except that we did not activate the option to repeat them. Now, in iOS 14 a new option together with the buttons “Random” and “Repeat” called “Autoplay” allows us, despite the fact that what we were listening to ends, we can continue listening to a selection of songs that Apple Music considers that They are consistent with our reproduction and that we may like. A new option to discover new artists in a simple way.
3- The lists by gender and mood are now easier to locate
While iOS 13 complicated that we will find the genres tab in Explore, iOS 14 offers them to us as well as we click on Search, allowing us to have much easier access than before, also joining the lists according to our mood.
4- Search improvement to quickly locate the song you are looking for
The option to Search in Apple Music has become more intuitive and useful in iOS 14, thanks to a subtle facelift that will now show us more information about our searches at first glance.
In addition to showing us covers corresponding to our search, a new bar to filter by artists, albums, songs or lists will not allow more refined scrutiny of our search, since Apple Music finally shows all the search results at the first time, without having to navigate entering artists or albums to finally end up with the desired result.
This also applies to searches within our library, now showing us the “Top Results” first, and then allowing us to refine the search by filtering by artist, album or song.
5- An extended search bar in our library
iOS 14 expands the use of the search bar in our library to the maximum, and now we can perform searches within discs or playlists thanks to the new search bar, which reaches each new selection that we access until we find what we seek.
Initially hidden until we slide from top to bottom, now we can even search for songs within a playlist, to get to the last corner of our library.
6- The classification of our library is now less intrusive
Until iOS 13, when we wanted to sort our library by newest, newest, or oldest, a pop-up menu at the bottom of our screen appeared, hiding half of the interface until we made our selection. Now with iOS 14 this menu is transformed into a small drop-down at the top that is less intrusive with the environment and allows you to continue seeing practically the full screen.
7- The color of the playback interface adapts to the album art
One of the most striking visual novelties is undoubtedly the adaptation of the background of Play to colors in accordance with the cover of the disc that we are playing at the time. A small detail in the purest Apple style that creates a more visually attractive environment.
8- The album and list interface is also updated
In addition to the new appearance of the play screen, the interface when opening an album or a list has also been updated.
Whereas before we had a thumbnail of the album cover, followed by the download button and the play and random button, now we have the largest cover, occupying the entire width of the screen and moving the download button to the top right. The play and random buttons are still in the same place but change from gray to the typical Apple Music fuchsia tone.
9- New widget for the app
Much like the previous one in Today’s display, the Music widget can now be selected in three sizes, which we can place on the home screen. It will now show our most recent reproductions, as we decide the size with more hindsight or less.
Something we miss is the possibility of controlling the music from the widget , which makes us refer to the Control Center for this or launch the full interface of the app.
10- iTunes purchases are downloaded automatically
If you buy music through the iTunes Store and choose to download all your music to not play in streaming, there is now a new option called Automatic Downloads in the Music menu in Settings that automatically downloads your purchases to Music. Previously on iOS 13, after purchase, you had to go to Music, search for the album and download it manually.
11- Personalization for AirPods and Beats
If you have hearing problems, iOS 14 offers the possibility to adjust what we hear in our headphones thanks to an option called Settings for headphones. It is found in Settings-> Accessibility-> Audio / Visual-> Headphone settings and allows us once we activate it to create a custom sound configuration for our AirPods or Beats.
To accommodate the audio to your liking, a guided tour is offered that will allow you to test and adjust the sound at the moment to leave it exactly as it best suits you.
This mode is also compatible with Transparency on AirPods Pro, offering a kind of sonotone through Apple headphones.
12- Spatial Audio with surround sound for AirPods Pro
Despite being a function initially proposed to watch movies with surround sound, if we play music in 5.1, 7.1 or Dolby Atmos we can enjoy our music in surround sound.
This works thanks to the sensors of the AirPods Pro, so they are the only ones so far to take advantage of this feature.
13- Now we can control the level of sound around us from the Control Center
A new possibility comes to the Control Center with the listen button. This option can be added from the center settings and will allow us to use the AirPods to measure the sound around us as well as activate active listening.
Music receives important improvements in iOS 14, like many other apps such as Messages or Maps, implementing both aesthetic and functional innovations that surely improve the experience of using the app.