Apple Music’s 17 Hidden Features and Changes You Might’ve Missed on iOS 18 and iPadOS 18

The iOS 18 update brings new life to the queue user interface, and one of the most noticeable changes gives you larger Shuffle, Repeat, and Autoplay buttons. Instead of being tucked away to the side, they fill the whole width of the screen. This change does not apply to iPadOS 18, where the Shuffle and Repeat buttons remain in the player controls with Autoplay still in the top right of the queue.

The queue in the Music app has always been a little confusing since everything was always bunched together — playlists you’re shuffling, songs you’ve added manually to play next, albums you’ve queued up, and music videos. But things are looking better with iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.

Before, everything ended up in the “Playing Next” queue. Now, there are separate up-next lists: “Queue” and “Continue Playing.” The new Continue Playing list houses everything coming up in an album or playlist you’re playing, shuffling, or repeating, whereas Queue shows the songs you’ve manually added to play next or last.

If you subscribe to Apple Music and have Autoplay turned on, suggested songs to play next will still appear at the bottom in its own Autoplay section and will start playing when your Queue and Continue Playing lists have been exhausted. When Queue and Continue Playing are both empty, Autoplay will take over Continue Playing with an “Autoplaying similar music” note.

In the new design, you can also hit “Clear” to ditch everything manually queued up without affecting the Continue Playing content. Before, you’d have to manually play a song or shuffle songs from another album or playlist to clear the queue, but it would clear everything in Playing Next, not just manually added songs, albums, and playlists.

On iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, whenever you manually play or shuffle a different album or playlist, it will have the same effect as before, wiping the slate clean. So, both Queue and Continue Playing would be affected. However, Music now gives you “Playing this will clear your queue” prompts, making it clear that the Queue list will become empty, with options to continue or cancel.

In another change to your up-next queue, you’ll see an “Add Songs to Queue” option at the bottom of the Queue list. Tap that to bring up the picker to browse artists, albums, songs, and more. You’ll also see suggestions below the library options, such as “Suggested Songs” and “Recently Favorited,” and a search bar to hunt for something specific.

You can tap a song’s name or cover art to play a preview, automatically pausing whatever music is playing. When a preview is over, the paused music will resume. Hit the plus (+) button next to the content you want to add, then hit “Done” when you’ve found everything you wanted.

Before iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, adding tracks, albums, and playlists to the queue seemed simple because everything ended up in the same Playing Next list. When you tapped More (•••), you’d see options for “Play Next” and “Play Last.” You could also swipe right on a song, album, or playlist from a list view and use the Play Next and Play Last buttons.

Things are different now, with labels that clarify what will happen. You’ll still see “Play Next” in the More (•••) menu, but “Play Last” has been replaced with:

• “Play After,” which will add the item to the end of the album or playlist you’re listening to. Doing so will move the rest of that album or playlist from Continue Playing to Queue so that the new item can be the last.
• “Add to Queue,” which will add the item to the end of the current Queue list.

You can still also use the swipe-right options from list views to “Play Next” or “Add to Queue,” but you won’t see an option to “Play After.”

The previous “Browse” tab in Music’s navigation bar and sidebar menu is now called “New.” While Apple says that you “get personalized new releases” and can “find out about big moments in music” handpicked by its editors, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the content shown in New versus Browse.

In general, the section shows recently released music, new playlists, newly updated playlists, chart toppers, trending songs, and more.

Sometimes, we feel music in our soul when we play a song we love, but with iOS 18, you can also feel your music in a completely different way. This is especially useful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Music Haptics utilizes the Taptic Engine on the iPhone 12 and newer models (excluding the iPhone SE) to provide vibrations representing a synchronized cadence for the current song. This feature works with Apple Music, Apple Music Classical, and Shazam, but third-party apps can also join if they build support for Music Haptics. You can enable it via Settings » Accessibility » Music Haptics, which also lists compatible apps installed on your iPhone.

Then, just play a song in the Music app to experience Music Haptics. On the Now Playing view, you’ll see “Music Haptics” below the slider when it’s on, and you can tap that to pause it. You can also start and stop Music Haptics from its control in Control Center.

Not all music in the Apple Music library is compatible. When playing a song without any Music Haptics available, it will say “Unavailable” under the Now Playing slider.

Music Haptics doesn’t always work when AirPlaying music or connected to certain Bluetooth speakers and headphones, so you can disable the feature quickly in those cases to preserve battery life unless you need it for accessibility reasons.

Song titles no longer get truncated in an album listing if its title is longer than the line space available. The song titles now wrap to show the entire name of the track.

When creating or editing a custom playlist, you’ll soon have another option when it comes to cover art, thanks to Apple Intelligence. Instead of using an album cover, a grid, or one of Apple’s premade options, you’ll be able to ask Image Playground to create a custom playlist cover for you instead of uploading your own. Also, Image Playground may also be able to add AI-generated artwork for playlists using the default option.

Several other new features apply to the Music app but aren’t exclusive to it. Instead, these features, which offer app icon and widget customization, work across the system: