Apple to announce improved features for the Music app at WWDC

The Music app will have an improved crossfade feature that allows for better transitions without gaps of silence between songs. While the current song fades out, the next song will fade-in. The new, improved version of the feature will be called “smart song transitions.” The latter will allow users to adjust how long the crossfade effect will run depending on the preference of the user. The transition can be set to run from one-second to twelve seconds.

The Apple Music app will also continue to have the current version of the crossfade feature along with the capability to disable it. A new audio feature called “Passthrough” will also be available for the Music app and QuickTime. While it isn’t clear what this feature is, AppleInsider says that it could be a new name for the Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos feature. Spatial Audio is also called surround sound since it gives users the experience of hearing where sounds appear to be coming from while viewing a video, and the origin points of these sounds seem to be coming from all around the user.

While using Spatial Audio requires a subscription to Apple Music, that does not seem to be the case for “Passthrough” which will allow everyone to experience Spatial Audio. Passthrough will also be available on QuickTime for those running a Mac running macOS 15.

The report adds that Apple is working on hands-free audio control for gaming and a feature that is called “Spatial Gaming.” Other improvements to audio accessories such as headphones and headsets are expected and the speculation is that the improvements will focus on gaming.

We are now inside three weeks until WWDC 2024 begins. Get ready.