Apple Music on Android Testing Support for Android Tablets

[MacRumors]

Apple is now beta testing a version of the Apple Music app for Android smartphones that works with larger-screen Android tablets (via Pixel Spot). Found in the 2.7.0 update of Apple Music on Android, when opened on an Android tablet the app now adapts to the increased display area. With the added room, it shows additional playlists, albums, featured artists, songs, and more of what is presented in the selected tab, similar to Apple Music on iPad.

Image via Pixel Spot​

In regards to the tabs, Apple Music on Android also now features a bottom bar navigation menu that's close to the one found on the iOS app, with Library, For You, Browse, and Radio all listed at the bottom of the app. On Android, search is still located in the top right corner. Previously, the Android app used a left-hand collapsable hamburger menu for navigation. The full 2.7.0 beta changelog is below:

- Tablet Support: Enjoy Apple Music with an experience designed for a wider range of Android devices.
- Performance improvements for images and audio playback.
- Various bug fixes.

In August, Apple Music updated on Android with support for Android Auto, letting Android smartphone owners control playback of Apple Music songs directly from the infotainment center in their vehicle. Android Auto support was part of Apple Music's 2.6.0 beta on Android, which also included numerous other features already found on Apple Music on iOS: lyric searches, updated artist pages, and the new weekly playlist called "Friends Mix."

Article Link: Apple Music on Android Testing Support for Android Tablets

 

[cocky jeremy]

Even the peasants have Apple Music now.

 

[Scarpad]

Wonder if fire tablets will get it next now that Alexa is getting the skill

 

[Spock]

Wonder if fire tablets will get it next now that Alexa is getting the skill

Depends on the new Amazon Apple relationship, I would say that Apple Music will eventually be on the Fire Tablets since it’s shockingly coming to the Echo.

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

Even the peasants have Apple Music now.

Haha!
While that did make me lol, I kinda doubt that Apple Music will be running on those $40 Android tabs, sold en masse at Walmart...

 

[tromboneaholic]

I'm surprised there wasn't already a tablet app.

 

[MagMan1979]

Whoop-dee-doo, now all, what, 100 owners of Crapdroid tablets will enjoy the benefits of Apple Music? Oh, I forgot, they probably won't, since they're so cheap they went for the $100 dumpster-diver tablets, and are likely too cheap or unethical to actually pay for their monthly music subscription!

 

[NMBob]

Haha!
While that did make me lol, I kinda doubt that Apple Music will be running on those $40 Android tabs, sold en masse at Walmart...

If they want to get out of the hardware business and be in "services" they better start making everything run on other people's stuff. Music, FaceTime, Messages...

 

[tromboneaholic]

If they want to get out of the hardware business and be in "services" they better start making everything run on other people's stuff. Music, FaceTime, Messages...

Apple has never been a strictly hardware company. Considering Apple does business with over 600 million customers a month, I don't think they are going to start giving away software for free.

 

[jona2125]

If they want to get out of the hardware business and be in "services" they better start making everything run on other people's stuff. Music, FaceTime, Messages...

I would like them to make their services run on their own stuff first. I use Android devices most of the time for media consumption and Apple Music runs far better on them than any of my iDevices have. Apple music crashes constantly for me and doesn't even manage to keep track of what I was listening to if I leave it paused and go to some other apps for a few minutes and come back.

I definitely pray they port (but won't) iMessage to Android though, I will finally not have to keep putting up with iPhones for work.

 

[jhfenton]

Depends on the new Amazon Apple relationship, I would say that Apple Music will eventually be on the Fire Tablets since it’s shockingly coming to the Echo.

I have Apple Music on my $40 Fire HD 8. I just sideloaded the apk. The UI isn't perfect, but it's as good as most Android tablet apps.

 

[lunarworks]

Apple's showing more support for Android tablets than most Android devs.

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

If they want to get out of the hardware business and be in "services" they better start making everything run on other people's stuff. Music, FaceTime, Messages...

Well, I think precisely zero people think Apple has the vaguest intention of “getting out of” the hardware business...

But, if Services is going to continue to take a more leading role- I agree that some cross platform work on their paid services is definitely in order (obviously, they feel the same... hence, this article).
Not sure why you (or anyone) would think offering their free services like iMessage & FaceTime to non Apple users would be a good idea. That’s ridiculous.
Encouraging people to go ahead & use other hardware, give Apple $0 & 0¢, yet enjoy multiple free services that they bear the cost of??!!! Ummm... towards what end?
Quite intelligently, it seems like they’re going a very different direction- sounds like their new video service will be 100% free, but ONLY available to people with Apple hardware.
Now, THAT is clever! I know if a device came with a Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription, free forever- it’d catch my attention! =)

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Apple's showing more support for Android tablets than most Android devs.

What's that quote, something about handing a glass of water to someone in hell?

Edit - Found it. At the debut of iTunes for Windows, Jobs said:

"It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell."

 

[jona2125]

Well, I think precisely zero people think Apple has the vaguest intention of “getting out of” the hardware business...

But, if Services is going to continue to take a more leading role- I agree that some cross platform work on their paid services is definitely in order (obviously, they feel the same... hence, this article).
Not sure why you (or anyone) would think offering their free services like iMessage & FaceTime to non Apple users would be a good idea. That’s ridiculous.
Encouraging people to go ahead & use other hardware, give Apple $0 & 0¢, yet enjoy multiple free services that they bear the cost of??!!! Ummm... towards what end?
Quite intelligently, it seems like they’re going a very different direction- sounds like their new video service will be 100% free, but ONLY available to people with Apple hardware.
Now, THAT is clever! I know if a device came with a Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription, free forever- it’d catch my attention! =)

As far as free services offered beyond the Apple ecosystem being a bad idea, for who exactly? For Apple, possibly. But how would that not be beneficial to anyone else to have a universalized system? iTunes is free and I don't see anyone complaining about how unfair that is for Apple's business.

 

[tromboneaholic]

As far as free services offered beyond the Apple ecosystem being a bad idea, for who exactly? For Apple, possibly. But how would that not be beneficial to anyone else to have a universalized system? iTunes is free and I don't see anyone complaining about how unfair that is for Apple's business.

iTunes was offered free so people could buy music and load it on their iPods.

If Apple spends time and money developing software like FaceTime and iMessage for other platforms, that's time and money they can't spend on software for people who buy their products. Also, Apple would have to support FaceTime and iMessage on other platforms, which would also cost money.

If Apple wants to charge a monthly subscription fee for FaceTime and iMessage on Android, that would be a different issue. I just don't see people subscribing to that like they do Apple Music, Netflix etc...

 

[kalafalas]

Yet we still don't have basic sorting features (please all I want is decending date added) and up next handoff (embarrassing as this is in LITERALLY EVERY OTHER IOS APP) on iOS

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

As far as free services offered beyond the Apple ecosystem being a bad idea, for who exactly? For Apple, possibly. But how would that not be beneficial to anyone else to have a universalized system? iTunes is free and I don't see anyone complaining about how unfair that is for Apple's business.

Lol, I’m gonna go ahead and let you use your own critical thinking skills on this one... but I think it’s fair to say that nobody was choosing whether to buy a Windows PC or a Mac PC based on whether iTunes was available.
Further... again, iTunes is free.
A service like iMessage costs Apple a lot of money to provide. They gladly absorb that cost, as the users that benefit from it have paid them for hardware. Essentially, they already paid for it!
OF COURSE it would be handy for Android users, were Apple to pick up the tab for hosting iMessage for them & pass that expense on to people buying iPhones... but why on earth would they do that????
That would be a really really really unheard of stupid business decision.
This is the equivalent of you hearing that Apple has a promotion where if you purchase a MacBook Pro you get a free pair of Beats & saying: “Apple should really offer a free pair of Beats to anyone that buys a Surface as well!”.
Lol. Like... wtf?? Why would Apple literally PAY for someone to use a different platform?
Making paid services available to as many as possible is great business, making free services free for other platforms would be the height of insanity.

 

[jona2125]

iTunes was offered free so people could buy music and load it on their iPods.

If Apple spends time and money developing software like FaceTime and iMessage for other platforms, that's time and money they can't spend on software for people who buy their products. Also, Apple would have to support FaceTime and iMessage on other platforms, which would also cost money.

If Apple wants to charge a monthly subscription fee for FaceTime and iMessage on Android, that would be a different issue. I just don't see people subscribing to that like they do Apple Music, Netflix etc...

Well yes iTunes was a great source of media management but you aren't required to own an iPod to use it, granted it does have a revenue generating effect. But to the point of them not being able to split time, they seem to do it just fine with their services that run on Windows and I doubt their overly saturated developer infrastructure would be taxed by taking on something that isn't a wild goose chase for once. Apple picks up and drops new ideas and avenues for products internally on a daily basis and after working with them for over 3 years this would really not be a detriment to dedicate some resources to something long term that's got 95% of the groundwork covered as it is. There is also co-development that already exists to handle their own stuff that does exist like this already to cover both sides of things. They "don't" store any of those features, the backend of the work is through their already optimized systems that don't cost any more to operate than they do now and they already have a capacity to (and do) handle continents worth of traffic that would be generated for the handshakes of device-to-device while the majority of the workload (data) is handed off to the service providers.

 

[tromboneaholic]

Well yes iTunes was a great source of media management but you aren't required to own an iPod to use it, granted it does have a revenue generating effect. But to the point of them not being able to split time, they seem to do it just fine with their services that run on Windows and I doubt their overly saturated developer infrastructure would be taxed by taking on something that isn't a wild goose chase for once. Apple picks up and drops new ideas and avenues for products internally on a daily basis and after working with them for over 3 years this would really not be a detriment to dedicate some resources to something long term that's got 95% of the groundwork covered as it is. There is also co-development that already exists to handle their own stuff that does exist like this already to cover both sides of things. They "don't" store any of those features, the backend of the work is through their already optimized systems that don't cost any more to operate than they do now and they already have a capacity to (and do) handle continents worth of traffic that would be generated for the handshakes of device-to-device while the majority of the workload (data) is handed off to the service providers.

iMessages and FaceTime would both consume additional resources on Apple's servers that you seem to be ignoring as well. Who is going to pay for that?

 

[jona2125]

iMessages and FaceTime would both consume additional resources on Apple's servers that you seem to be ignoring as well. Who is going to pay for that?

I wasn't ignoring it, Apple's hardware utilization for those platforms is under 10% of their total capacity at peak load. They have the ability to bring in quite a lot more without increasing their efforts or costs.

 

[tromboneaholic]

I wasn't ignoring it, Apple's hardware utilization for those platforms is under 10% of their total capacity at peak load. They have the ability to bring in quite a lot more without increasing their efforts or costs.

They are just getting around to adding Apple Music to android tablets after 3 years, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Maybe it would be part of a subscription offering including their streaming TV and other services, but I don't see it being a free giveaway to help other manufacturers....

 

[jona2125]

They are just getting around to adding Apple Music to android tablets after 3 years, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Maybe it would be part of a subscription offering including their streaming TV and other services, but I don't see it being a free giveaway to help other manufacturers....

It's been available on Android tablets since the Android app launched, you mean to say they are getting around to optimizing the app for tablets specifically which is new.

And while I agree I don't foresee them doing it voluntarily I do see RCS at least being somewhat of a pending competition and it wouldn't hurt to incentivize people to more exclusive features of Apple through freebies like iMessage that if offered, would eradicate WhatsApp rapidly. Also on the security portion of it, RCS isn't encrypted and that could be another push. Apple is running into shallow water with the prices of their phones putting them out of reach of even beginning to get into the ecosystem to enjoy the full benefits let alone partial ones. It's theories really but I do see just reasons for them to open the gates, even if it's watered down.

 

[tromboneaholic]

It's been available on Android tablets since the Android app launched, you mean to say they are getting around to optimizing the app for tablets specifically which is new.

And while I agree I don't foresee them doing it voluntarily I do see RCS at least being somewhat of a pending competition and it wouldn't hurt to incentivize people to more exclusive features of Apple through freebies like iMessage that if offered, would eradicate WhatsApp rapidly. Also on the security portion of it, RCS isn't encrypted and that could be another push. Apple is running into shallow water with the prices of their phones putting them out of reach of even beginning to get into the ecosystem to enjoy the full benefits let alone partial ones. It's theories really but I do see just reasons for them to open the gates, even if it's watered down.

I just remembered that Steve Jobs said FaceTime would be open source when it was announced, but I believe that never happened due to a patent dispute. I don't know if I missed that being mentioned in the discussion. Apple has been getting more aggressive in the services arena, so it's not impossible.

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

I wasn't ignoring it, Apple's hardware utilization for those platforms is under 10% of their total capacity at peak load. They have the ability to bring in quite a lot more without increasing their efforts or costs.

Lol, the part you’re ignoring is HUGE!!!!
It’s the question: “towards what end???”.

You keep screaming from the rooftops this nonsensical idea that Apple should provide iMessage & FaceTime free of charge to Android users without answering the question: “WHY?”.
Your hardware utilization tidbit is less than meaningless, btw... Apple has about 12% of the smartphone market now. Pretending like they could serve the other 88% of the market at no additional cost is both absurd & disingenuous.

It absolutely makes sense to offer PAID services to those that use any platform. That’s a no-brainer! Otherwise, they’re leaving a lot of money on the table (the aforementioned other 88% of the market)
It also absolutely makes sense to reward those who purchase their hardware with some additional free services, while it makes no sense whatsoever to give them away for free to those who are not giving them a single cent. In this case, with free services, they’re (obviously) NOT leaving any money on the table, by not offering them on competing platforms.
To the contrary- were they to do such, they’d be shooting themselves in both feet, so to speak. First, bearing an enormous responsibility and expense for exactly zero gains, financial or otherwise... & 2nd, quite to their detriment- encouraging users to not switch from Android to iOS, as you can use all the same services for no cost on any device. Similarly, the convenience of those features aid the “sticky” nature of iOS users. If they could jump ship & still access those features, I’m sure many more would.
Simply put- it behooves Apple’s bottom line INCREDIBLY to not do your bizarre suggestions & I have yet to see a single justification of why you even think this would be a good idea in the first place. You seem to just harp on whether it feasibly could be done. Sure- I suppose it could, put it’s a terrible idea.