Apple has today released a new beta update for Apple Music on the Google Play Store on Android which features a design overhaul and a ton of new features including a new “Listen New” Tab, Autoplay, and Story Sharing similar to the iOS 14 betas.
The version number for this beta is 3.4.0-beta, the public version number being 3.3.2
What’s New?
1. New icon: Apple Music now has a new red icon on Android, similar to the one on iOS 14 betas which is a white Music Symbol with a Light Red Background. Previously, it was a Multi-Colored Music Symbol with a White Background.
2. The All-New Tabs: Instead of 4 Tabs earlier, ‘Library’, ‘For You’, ‘Browse’, and ‘Radio’, we now have five tabs in the following order: ‘Listen Now’, ‘Browse’, ‘Radio’, ‘Library’, and ‘Search’ which has been moved from the top right to the bottom.
- Listen Now: The ‘Listen Now’ tab replaces the ‘For You’ Tab, and features your Top Picks, What your friends are listening to, Music Recently Played by You. It also features a Made For You Tab, which has Mixes like ‘Friends Mix’, ‘Favourites Mix’, ‘Get Up Mix’, ‘Chill Mix’, and ‘New Music Mix’. The background of these cards are very colorful and live, just like Live Wallpapers.
- Radio: The Radio section has had slight UI interface changes, making it look clean & Fresh.
- Library: The different sections in Library have been improved to look cleaner and larger, now having icons next to them, and the text is now white or black or white instead of pink.
- Search: The New ‘Search’ Tab also offers categories like Rock, Bollywood, Alternative, Worldwide, Hip-Hop & Rap, R&B, Classical, Dance, Kids & Family, Pop, DJ Mixes & Live Sets, K-Pop, Reggae, Jazz, Música Tropical, Electronic, and many regional languages. Once you tap on Search, it will display the songs you searched & played, instead of just words in the public version of Apple Music. When you search a song, there will be three categories – Top Results, Albums, and Songs.
4. Now Playing: The Now Playing Tab has received a huge update with this beta of Apple Music. When you tap or slide up the Now Playing Tab, it has got a whole new look. The background isn’t dark or white anymore, the background matches the color of the song thumbnail.
- Progress Bar: The Progress Bar now appears in both Live Lyrics and in the Playing Next list, earlier it only showed up in Now Playing. The Bar itself looks sleek, small, and smooth.
- AutoPlay: A new toggle has been added with ‘Shuffle’, and ‘Repeat’, called ‘AutoPlay’. If enabled, it will play similar songs to the one you are listening to.
5. Share to Social Media: You can now directly share a song to your Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat Stories, and the viewers will be able to tap on it and directly play it on Apple Music if they are subscribed.
Speed & Performance
This beta has been very smooth and much faster than the previous version of Apple Music on Android. It has received a significant amount of speed & reliability in this beta. Everything like Switching between different tabs, Seeing Live Lyrics, Searching, and Playing a song has been really very smooth and fast. I have not noticed any major bugs on Beta 1 of Apple Music on Android yet, but I have noticed minor bugs like the keyboard popping up, and also a bug where I receive a notification, the volume of the music should go down for only a small period but it volume stays low until I restart the app. These small bugs only occur sometimes and not all the time. This Beta is very stable for a Beta 1, and has been the most stable out of all previous betas according to me.
If you have an Android device, be sure to install the Apple Music Beta on your phone. If the beta program is full, use this link to enroll yourself and wait for a couple of minutes until you can download the beta from the Play Store.
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Author: Pururaj Dutta
Pururaj is the Vice President of Appleosophy and Silicon Report, in addition to being the Manager of popular Redfruit Media platforms such as TechPod Social and Apple Summit. His seasoned experience plays a pivotal role in the success of Redfruit Media, contributing significantly to shaping the ever-evolving tech landscape. As a tech aficionado, he enjoys exploring & reviewing new products, and sharing his insights with the community. With an unwavering passion for technology, Pururaj is committed to delivering accurate and insightful information to his readers.
