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iOS 18 will reportedly boost Apple Music with these features
- Apple Music on iOS 18 may introduce a new Smart Song Transitions option, which could upgrade the existing crossfade feature.
- The company could also feature a Spatial Gaming experience, presumably making playing games on its platforms more immersive.
- iOS 18 and Apple’s other upcoming operating system updates will be previewed during WWDC24’s opening keynote on June 10.
Apple will officially reveal iOS 18 in less than three weeks. While we wait, a steady stream of leaks has given us an idea of what to expect from this upcoming OS release. The most recent report indicates that iOS 18 could bring some notable upgrades to Apple Music, including a new Smart Song Transitions feature.
According to information obtained by AppleInsider, Apple Music will introduce a new Smart Song Transitions feature on iOS 18. The report claims this upcoming addition will allow users to control the crossfade duration and pick between one and twelve seconds. However, this claim is incorrect, as Apple Music’s crossfade feature already supports the aforementioned duration controls across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and even Android.
If this Smart Song Transitions setting is indeed coming, we assume it will dynamically adapt to the track a user is playing. It could potentially trigger the crossfade effect based on how each individual song ends. So, for example, if a track’s end features a few seconds of silence, Smart Song Transitions may automatically detect that and transition to the next song. After all, a similar feature is already available on Apple Music’s Android app but not on Apple’s own devices.
Otherwise, the report states that a new Spatial Gaming mode and other audio-related improvements are coming to iOS 18. While the leak doesn’t specify what Spatial Gaming is, it could be a new experience that makes gaming on Apple hardware more immersive.
The report also mentions that iOS 18 references a new Passthrough option and assumes it will be a fresh branding for the existing Spatial Audio feature. However, we strongly doubt that, as Apple has been embracing the “Spatial” branding lately through the Vision Pro’s Spatial Computer label and iPhone 15 Pro’s Spatial Video recording support. Considering Spatial Gaming is reportedly coming with iOS 18, it makes little sense for Apple to rebrand Spatial Audio as Passthrough.
Instead, the upcoming Passthrough feature could be related to lossless audio, as passthrough in music contexts typically refers to delivering the highest audio quality possible from the source to the output device. So iOS 18’s Passthrough feature could potentially build upon Apple Music’s lossless audio playback.
Ultimately, we will get concrete answers on June 10, when Apple reveals iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, and watchOS 11 during WWDC24’s opening keynote.