In short: Apple updated its Music app for Android on Wednesday, bringing a slew of new features to the app. The biggest feature is definitely bringing Android Auto support. This means that users are able to stream their music from Apple Music while they are driving and using Android Auto. Apple also added support for Android Oreo notifications, so now the notification shade is going to be colored based on the song that is playing which is a pretty nice feature to have. Apple also added a bunch of other new features here, including the ability to search by lyrics, as well as a new Artist Page, and a Friends Mix which is a playlist of songs from those that your friends are listening to.
Background:Apple Music is Apple’s music streaming service, which is priced at $9.99 per month or you can get a family plan for $14.99 per month. It has millions of songs, of course, that is expected, seeing as Apple was one of the companies that really pioneered the digital music age with the launch of iTunes many moons ago. Apple does also allow users to download music to take anywhere, and unlike Spotify, there is no limit on how much music users can take with them, which is really nice to see here.
Impact: Apple Music, surprisingly, is a fairly popular app on the Google Play Store, so there will be many users appreciating the Android Auto feature here. The reason why Apple Music is likely so popular on Android is because there are many that use family accounts, and some of those family members may have iPhones, or they may have music that they have bought, which they can’t take over to another service like Google Play Music or Spotify. Which is unfortunate, but that is thanks to the music labels.