What’s New Features Coming to Apple Music App in iOS 26

More features have been revealed than the exciting news earlier this month, and Apple Music is getting a major update. With the Music app receiving its most feature-rich upgrade in years, iOS 26 is expected to be a great hit for Apple Music users. Here are all the new features that iOS 26 will bring to Apple Music.

Apple Music has confirmed further features that will be added to the service, building on an announcement made earlier this month. These features have the potential to improve user management of their music libraries, listening, and music discovery.

Like a DJ, AutoMix

An AI-powered tool called AutoMix can combine two songs. As the music changes, it is meant to weave them together like an automatic DJ. It will find appropriate transition points and perform more than just a crossfade.

Apple Music’s latest feature, AutoMix, transitions between songs with ease and artistic flair, much like a DJ.

This is how Apple explains it:

With AutoMix, which mixes songs like a DJ, Apple Music offers a more sophisticated listening experience. In order to provide continuous playback and an even smoother listening experience, it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate audio features and creates distinctive song transitions with time stretching and beat matching.

AutoMix may be a noteworthy addition in iOS 26 if early social comments are any guide, but you can easily turn it off if you don’t like it.

Pinned music

You can now pin music to the top of your library for the first time with Apple Music in iOS 26. You can pin playlists, artists, albums, or anything else that best suits your needs.

Users may now put their favorite songs, albums, or playlists to the top of their library using a new pinning feature. As soon as the app loads, listeners will be able to quickly access their most-listened-to songs.

New Home Screen widgets

Additionally, a new pinned widget will make it simple for listeners to jump into their favorite music. With just a single tap, listeners can access the widget by pinning it to the home screen.

When it comes to the selection of Home Screen widgets, Music has long been among the greatest Apple apps.

With the release of three brand-new widget alternatives in iOS 26, the trend continues.

• Pins (medium)
• Pins (large)
• Live Radio (large)

The third gives you easy access to Apple Music’s six live-hosted radio stations, while the first two correspond to the music you’ve pinned to your library.

Folder creation

Users will be able to easily organize their music libraries with playlist folders. To make browsing easier, playlists can be organized by mood, genre, event, or whatever else the user chooses.

Playlists can be organized into folders in the Mac’s Music app, and while the iPhone can sync with these folders, iOS has never supported playlist creation or modification.

Thankfully, full support for making and editing playlist folders is available in iOS and iPadOS 26. Folders can be a useful method to keep your playlists organized as your music library grows.

Lyric translation and pronunciation

Early in June, we learned about Apple’s upcoming “Liquid Glass” interface design, which is based on visionOS and would be available on iOS 26 devices. Lyrics features that will help non-native speakers in comprehending foreign songs were disclosed in the announcement.

The lyrics will be translated into the user’s native tongue by Lyrics Translation. Songs Pronunciation takes one step further by demonstrating the proper pronunciation of the songs.

With iOS 26, Apple will introduce a number of significant system-wide live translation features, including lyric translation for the music app.

iOS 26 will offer live translation in addition to the original lyrics under Apple Music’s lyrics screen, allowing you to understand what is being sung.

Furthermore, you can learn how to pronounce lyrics in languages you are unable to speak by using the phonetic guidance that music offers.

Animated Lock Screen artwork

When music is playing, the lock screen comes to life thanks to animated lock screen album art. Turn on the screen of your phone while Apple Music is playing to see animated visuals from the album.

Apple Music has long had more extensive artwork, some of which is animated. However, it has always been restricted to the Music app.

However, iOS 26 will bring full-screen album art to your iPhone’s lock screen, along with animation capability.

The iPhone’s always-on display looks stunning and is more captivating than before.

Fully native Apple Music Replay

The Apple version of Spotify Wrapped, Apple Music Replay, has always had a major problem. Replay is completely online rather than integrated into the Music app.

Last year, you could finally open your replay in Music, but it was still primarily a web view.

However, with iOS 26, Apple Music Replay is fully integrated into the Music app. Replay will thus provide a more seamless experience than previously, whether you’re seeing your year-end summary or your monthly statistics, which are available throughout the year.

Apple is currently releasing beta versions of iOS 26. Later this year, the entire OS should be available.