Apple Music's Newest Update Has Divided Users (For A Good Reason)

Apple is currently testing the iOS 26.4 update. This upcoming release is expected to bring big upgrades to Apple Music, as the company is testing a new user interface for albums and playlists, a revamped Profile page, AI playlists (which are still limited to U.S. users), and more. However, as with most big design changes, it has divided users online. Even though Apple uses beta cycles to take input from developers, and soon enough from public beta testers, some people already went to Reddit and other online forums to complain about this unreleased software.

While I'm part of the group of users happy with the new direction Apple Music is taking, others noted that Apple hasn't been meeting its previous high standard of accessibility features. For example, the Liquid Glass design has divided users due to poor UI readability. With that, some people believe that Apple Music displaying song titles over a fully colored background in an album list is terrible, since readability might not always be ideal.

On the other hand, plenty of Reddit users enjoyed this new Apple Music design and quickly compared it with Spotify, which doesn't offer animated covers and has an overall outdated UI. While all of these are valid opinions, Apple Music likely wants to continue to differentiate itself from its main competitor, even though the main UI issues are yet to be addressed.

Besides the new design, Apple Music still needs to address two big issues: social features and its algorithm. Comparing it with Spotify, Apple's competitor is a lot more shareable and made to use with others. For its creators, music is a shared experience, while Apple Music has been making it a lot more lonely. While Apple's service has gotten several improvements over the past year, it's still impossible to combine music preferences with friends or with your favorite artist the way you can on Spotify.

With iOS 26.4, Apple is adding upcoming concerts, which makes it easier to follow your favorite artists' schedule. It's also implementing AI playlists, letting Apple Music users describe how they're feeling and getting a smart list based on what they listen to and what they might enjoy. Still, the consensus is that Apple Music is far from offering the same level of good algorithm recommendations as Spotify, whether through continuous playback, smart playlists, or the company's own curation.

To keep luring in new customers, Apple Music needs to take more seriously how people can interact with the service and with others using it. Besides that, Apple Music always requires big iOS updates to get changes, while Spotify has the freedom to just update its app whenever it wants.

If this new design isn't enough for you, the first thing you should know is that we're still talking about a beta version, and Apple could still tweak the experience before the final one. That said, it's unlikely that it will look fairly different from what it was. If you take Liquid Glass as a reference, Apple continues to tweak it, but the main idea is already solid, and users have a stable experience.

In case you're part of the group that still thinks Liquid Glass is not ideal, Apple offers a few accessibility features to make the experience more tinted and frosty. For example, under iPhone settings, you can go to Display & Brightness and, under Liquid Glass, choose a Tinted look. In Accessibility, you can also pick Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast to improve Liquid Glass readability. After all, more than just a design preference, some people actually need an easier-to-read experience. Thankfully, they're available on everybody's iPhone settings.

The iOS 26.4 update is expected to be released alongside iPadOS 26.4, macOS Tahoe 26.4, and other operating systems by late March or early April. Other iOS 26.4 beta features point to new emojis and stolen device protection. However, the long-awaited new Siri is now rumored to land with iOS 26.5 after issues during tests, according to Bloomberg.