Animated track artwork won't be exclusive to Apple Music: an open API will allow it to be added to other services

By: Anton Kratiuk | 16.06.2025, 12:24

Apple Music has introduced animated artwork for tracks

Animated track artwork in Apple Music. Source: TUAW

One of the main features of iOS 26 will be animated music track covers that will play when using Apple Music instead of static images. But it turns out that this feature will not be exclusive to the app.

Here's What We Know

Apple released to the public API MPMediaItemAnimatedArtwork, thanks to which developers will be able to add animated covers to their iOS apps.

So far, only iOS 26 beta test participants can see such covers, and the stable version of the update is expected to be released in autumn 2025.

Source: developer.apple

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