Have you been waiting for collaborative Apple Music Playlists since they were announced back at WWDC 2023? The feature has been added (again) to the latest iOS 17.3 beta.
We’ve seen Apple Music Collaborative Playlists in the iOS 17 and iOS 17.2 betas, yet the feature never appeared in the official releases. Now, Apple has brought the much-anticipated Apple Music addition that allows users to build playlists with friends and family back in iOS 17.3 beta 1, but will it make the cut when the official release comes around?
Collaborative Playlists brings a feature that we’ve seen in Spotify for years to Apple Music, allowing you to easily share existing playlists or new ones and collaborate to create the ultimate listening experience.
By default, only the person who has created can add songs, but this can be changed easily in settings so that everyone can be the DJ. Apple updated its iOS 17 features documentation earlier this month, stating that the Collaborative Playlists feature would be “coming in an update in 2024,” which aligns with the expected early 2024 release date of 17.3.
Back to Apple Music — iMore’s take
Playlist collaboration is one of the reasons I made a switch from Apple Music to Spotify last year, and I’ve become reliant on the feature to find new music from my friends who have similar tastes to mine. By adding this feature to iOS 17, Apple will finally make a lot of loyal Apple Music subscribers very happy with a feature that adds the social aspect often missed in Apple’s streaming service.
Hopefully, we get to see Apple Music Collaborative Playlists when iOS 17.3 officially releases next year, but until then, I’ll be sticking with Spotify and my shared playlists that help me find new music daily.
