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Apple releases iOS 8.4 beta 3 with revamped Music app ahead of late June launch

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Apple today released the third beta of iOS 8.4 to developers, labeled build 12H4098c. The update is available via Software Update on iOS and it should be hitting the developer center soon. The second Public Beta is available as well for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Xcode 6.4 beta 3 is also available. As with the first pair of betas, iOS 8.4 brings a revamped Music application with a new design, Up Next functionality, a Mini Player, and a new version of iTunes Radio. As we’ve reported several times, iOS 8.4’s Music app will also be home to Apple’s upcoming Beats-based streaming music service. Sources say that the new service will be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8th alongside iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, and it will launch publicly in several countries alongside the new iTunes Radio in late June.

Below, we list the changes in this new beta:

– Small user interface tweaks on the iPad and iPhone to the new iTunes Radio section.

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– More prominent toggles for only showing offline Music.

– Music Search history includes past local searches now in addition to iTunes Radio searches.

– Now Playing screen opens when you start playback of a song rather than just only appearing as the bar at the bottom of the display.

– New animation when hitting the Up Next button on the Now Playing screen

– New iPhone logo to show music stored offline

– Trending Searches from beta 2 is gone (temporarily?).

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Comments

  1. ML (@MR_CoolFreak) - 9 years ago

    Why do you guys keep saying it came with revamped music when that happened in the old betas, if there is nothing new besides bug fixes and performance just say “iOS 8.4 beta 3 is released”

    • Because sometimes apple takes away features in the betas… for example, apple took away the feature that let you change the color of your keyboard in the early ios 7 betas…

    • Neil Quinn (@neilq5) - 9 years ago

      So whats the deal with my synced library disappearing when I go offline? only noticed it when I got on a flight and was stuck without music for the duration of it.

  2. Alex Farnsworth - 9 years ago

    Also released today was a new 10.10.4 beta build

  3. Zoheb Khoja - 9 years ago

    we can now finally see lyrics :D

  4. Cory © (@Nardes) - 9 years ago

    My number one request has finally happened! I can finally toggle between music stored on my phone and music in the cloud within the music app itself…. no more switching to settings, then to music, then scrolling down to toggle this option.

    As someone who uses iTunes Match exclusively this is huge!

    • AirDJ31 - 9 years ago

      How do you like iTunes Match? Been thinking about doing it for a over a year now, however, not all my music in my library is from my iTunes account/purchased by me. Not sure if it’d work the way I’d hope.

      • Actually it does work with music not in itunes catalog. I have tons of international music and when its not matched with itunes library, it is just uploaded to itunes in cloud and you can play it on iphone or other devices.

  5. crichton007 - 9 years ago

    They finally are adding an option to only show music stored locally on the iPhone? Hallelujah!

  6. J.latham - 9 years ago

    It seems For artists with 4 albums or more, it lists condensed albums. Finally, now I don’t have to scroll through long lists of albums anymore. No if only you could toggle to order back to oldest to newest, rather than newest to oldest.

    • galley99 - 9 years ago

      Yeah, that sort order bug has existed since iOS 7 debuted!

    • Matt DeWater - 9 years ago

      Oh awesome!! Care to post a screenshot of how that looks? When you tap an album does it just expand to show songs or does it take you to a new page?

  7. It’s funny.. the build# here is the same, but it stated it was Beta 2!!!!

  8. sptolboe - 9 years ago

    In iOS 8.4, have they removed the option to turn off “Allow Explicit”? I can’t find it anywhere.

  9. Is iOS 8.4 going to fix camera focus on iphone 6+ ? please let me know

  10. Oxygen (@OxygenTheMusic) - 9 years ago

    We are excited about this. Now, our fans can see the lyrics of our songs.

  11. Can you download iOS 8.4 beta 3 right now? Both my phone and iPod are saying there’s no new updates available.

  12. kipwylie - 9 years ago

    Any chance there’s some improvements to the WiFi issues some users are having with the iOS releases over the past 6 months? Am I alone in my iPod touch WiFi issues? Had to purchase a new router since 30 seconds after the iOS 8.x.x in January. With 8.x.x, will ONLY connect to the 5Ghz half of my newer dual-band router. :(

  13. Martin Larouche - 9 years ago

    Now playing screen Is way better than before, but the bottom part effect is too subtle IMO. It should looks more like this:
    https://twitter.com/postLarouche/status/603776731271532545

  14. Andrew Von Pelt III - 9 years ago

    is it normal for the ‘make available offline’ on a playlist to ONLY download 100 songs and you have to do ‘make available offline’ for each song individually to download the rest?!

    • kipwylie - 9 years ago

      Is there any remote chance that the Apple people have made a fix in this new IOS for those of us with Wifi issues? I lost all wifi for 6 months while traveling and was only able to regain a connection after purchasing a newer router at home, and setting the iPod Touch 5th Gen to 5Ghz band wifi only. This problem arose 30 seconds after the January IOS “update”. It would sure be nice if I could get back onto 2.4Ghz so I could use this device while on the road. (Most hotels, friends, cafes, etc are on the 2.4Ghz band)
      Thank You