Apple Music for Android getting better widgets as beta reveals ‘Apple Classical’ name

The latest beta version of Apple Music is rolling out on Android this evening with a very sizable upgrade to homescreen widgets, while possibly also revealing the name of Apple’s standalone classical genre app based on Primephonic.

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

Enhanced widgets 

Apple Music has long included two Android widgets. Version 3.9 updates them so that they lose their thick border padding and can take up more of the screen/widget space. The “Apple Music Player” widget is wider and taller, while “Apple Music Recently Played” has more configurations when resized. The grid that shows past tracks is now available in 3×2 and 3×1 sizes, while the top half also gets larger.

The other big update is how both widget backgrounds are now themed to the current song’s album artwork. When nothing is playing, it reverts to the previous red/pink hue.

Before

These widgets are still in beta and have various visual bugs, like sharp corners depending on the configuration. This should be resolved before Apple Music 3.9 rolls out to the stable channel in the coming weeks — possibly in March with iOS 15.4 .

After

Apple Classical 

In August of last year, Apple acquired Primephonic to boost its streaming service’s classical music prowess. The dedicated app was shut down several months later, and existing subscribers were told to use Apple Music until the new app was ready in early 2022.

With that deadline nearing, the Apple Music beta features a string that reveals the name “Apple Classical,” and the upcoming ability to open a compatible track directly in the optimized service. That looks to be the name for the upcoming Android app, but it could always change before launch. This reveal is similar to that of “Apple One” in 2020.

<string name=”open_in_apple_classical”>Open in Apple Classical</string>