When Will Apple Music Get Handoff

Yesterday I noticed something while on the “Browse” tab of Apple Music on my iPhone: a graphic with the words “Get ready—music is about to change forever.”

Update: Apple started today off strong by announcing Spacial Audio with Dolby Atmos and lossless audio to Apple Music at no additional cost in June.

Now I’m not an idiot…I’m pretty confidant that the graphic in question is in regards to the rumors going around about Apple Music getting a Hi-Fi tier soon. While that does sound interesting to me (provided they find a way to make the tier worthwhile with a HomePod mini and AirPods Pro, which is questionable at best), this really got me thinking about another feature that Apple Music desperately needs: HANDOFF!

Because I have a HomePod mini and an iPhone 12, I’m very accustomed to the way you hand off music between the two: just hold the iPhone near the HomePod. I do realize that doing it specifically like that is highly unlikely. Unlike a HomePod that you’re intentionally putting your phone near, this feature would be a mess with Macs if it worked the same way, as people will quite frequently have their phone on their desk and near their computer. I don’t doubt making the feature work this way due to hardware limitations, if unlocking your Mac with your Apple Watch is any indication.

Handoff between my Apple devices does generally work pretty well though — I mainly use it with Safari, myself. Still, it’s very encouraging to see that when I move from my Mac to my iPhone and I open the app switcher, I can easily see a little button to press to open my current tab on my phone. Ditto for the icon that appears on my Macs dock when going the other way.

It’s my understanding that Spotify has a way to handle playback sessions via the web, allowing for a Handoff style feature. With Handoff built into both macOS and iOS, however, I find it hard to believe that Apple can’t find a way to leverage that to let me immediately pull a song from my phone or my Mac and move it to another device. I actually have the desire to do this more often than you may think.

I’m pretty confidant that Apple’s next big announcement is going to be Hi-Fi for Apple Music and Handoff won’t be making an appearance, but WWDC is next month and I really hope the next iterations of Apple’s operating system bring this change on day one. I can’t be the only one that yearns for it.