Apple Music Users Say This Is The Biggest Issue With The Service

Many consider Apple Music to be among the best music streaming services you can use today. Not only is there a vast catalog of songs and podcasts to listen to, but the service seamlessly integrates locally-owned music with online streaming, and the addition of lossless audio gives it an edge over competitors. However, if you're thinking about switching from Spotify to Apple Music, there's a specific feature that you'll lose access to.

This feature is the ability to smoothly transition audio playback from one device to another, something that Apple Music is unable to do. This lack of real-time cross-device continuity is deemed by many users to be one of Apple Music's biggest issues. On Spotify, switching from one device to another is snappy and straightforward. If you're listening to music on your desktop PC or gaming console, you can use your phone to skip to a different track, to fast-forward the current song, or to switch to a different playlist entirely. 

The same isn't possible on Apple Music. You cannot use your phone to change the song on your Mac or Apple TV, nor can you resume playing a song you were playing on your MacBook on your iPhone. On student or individual plans, trying to play music on a new device with a track already running on another prompts a warning that playback is only allowed on a single device. The family plan doesn't offer cross-device continuity, either; if you play music on a device when another is already streaming music, it'll create a new session, and music will play on both devices simultaneously, independent of one another. While Handoff 

Apple Music isn't the only music streaming platform that doesn't offer playback handoff between devices; synced playback between devices is a Spotify feature missing from YouTube Music and many other services. There are likely two key reasons Apple still hasn't implemented the feature in Apple Music.

The first reason is a difference in design philosophy due to how Apple Music evolved from vastly different services. Today Apple pushes the same platform to iOS, macOS, tvOS, Android, and Windows. However, this wasn't always the case. For example, the Apple Music standalone app for iOS, iPadOS, and Android was built on top of existing code from the Beats Music app, while its macOS version used existing iTunes code as a base. Windows didn't get Apple Music until 2023, and Windows users had to rely on an old iTunes app prior to that. This difference in app infrastructure likely led to each device having separate playback, and it's a decision Apple has stuck with.

The second reason has to do with certain issues that may exist with the feature and some advantages of skipping out on it. For example, cross-device continuity can be a hindrance when you're listening to music on a desktop computer and then want to quickly switch to your phone to go out. In addition, synced playback generally stops you from using the same account to play music on multiple devices simultaneously. On Spotify, you cannot play music on both your phone and computer at once. You can do so with the family plan, but only if you have different accounts on each device. With Apple Music's family plan, you can have simultaneous audio playback on devices using the same Apple ID.