Apple Music in iOS 14 is gaining new animated playlist artwork

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How to manage your Apple Music subscription
How to manage your Apple Music subscription (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple Music in iOS 14 will get new animated artwork for playlists.
  • The animations are subtle but look great already.
  • Apple will release iOS 14 to the public in or around September.

Sometimes it's the intangibles that make the difference and Apple absolutely knows that. So the news that iOS 14's Music app is getting animated Apple Music playlist artwork probably shouldn't be a surprise at all.

The new animations were first spotted by 9to5Mac and I've seen them first-hand myself. They aren't huge or gaudy animations that get in the way, but rather add a little magic to what could otherwise be boring images. Check out the video in the tweet below to see what I mean.

Not all playlists are animated currently, but it's likely those for Apple's own curated playlists will be animated eventually.

Animated artwork loops constantly until you tap it or scroll away from it. And in an amazing case of attention to detail, the animations are disabled if the iPhone is in Low Power Mode. See, it's all about the little things in life!

Developers can test iOS 14 in its current beta form with a public beta also expected to arrive later this month. The rest of the world will likely see iOS 14 arrive on their devices in or around September, too.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.