With the release of the iPhone 17 series – and Air – so is iOS 26 available to those who bought the new phones. And with it comes new features to Apple Music. To be fair, the fruit company revealed some of these awhile back. But now that they are actually available, it’s probably worth going over. Or indeed revisit if you got yourself into the beta.
Without a doubt the biggest upgrade here with Apple Music on iOS 26 are Lyrics Translation and Pronunciation. If you were hoping that these came as part of the base Lyrics rollout to reflect the experience of looking for translations online, this is basically that, but from the app itself. Not only do you get a romanised script to with the lyrics, you also get what they mean.
Which, if you listen to a wide enough rang of songs in a particular language, could also be used as a learning medium. Though that can take some time as it looks like supported languages are still a tad limited.
Then there’s AutoMix, which is probably best described as an AI crossfade feature. Rather than mixing the transition of two tracks at set times, Apple Music tries to figure out which part near the end of one song blends in best with an opening segment of the next. Of course, your mileage may vary if your playlist consists of wildly varying genres. This feature is on by default, except for albums and DJ mixes, but you can turn it off entirely if you choose.
For karaoke fans, Apple Music Sing should hit the spot, providing your other karaoke mates also have iPhones running iOS 26. Select songs can allow you to turn the volume of only the vocals down, giving you a pseudo karaoke version of the track. These are not exactly new, but what is with iOS 26 is the ability to use your iPhone as a mic to amplify your voice during the experience, but you’ll also need a third generation Apple TV 4K for this to work.
Other features that Apple Music got with the advent of iOS 26 include some obvious ones like the Liquid Glass UI. Then there are others like being able to set animated album art to your lock screen, and being able to pin your favourite music to the top if your library.
