Apple Opens iOS 26 Lock Screen Animation To Spotify And Other Third-Party Music Apps: Report

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is reportedly extending one of iOS 26's new features—animated album art on the lock screen—to third-party music and audio apps, breaking its exclusive tie to Apple Music.

What Happened: With the release of iOS 26, currently in developer beta, Apple is introducing a new lock screen layout that allows full-screen animated artwork to display behind music playback controls, reported 9To5Mac.

Initially available only for Apple Music, this feature is now being opened to third-party apps like Spotify Inc. (NYSE:SPOT), Audible and other audio players like music or podcasts through a new API called MPMediaItemAnimatedArtwork.

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According to developers testing the iOS 26 SDK, apps that play audio can now provide a video clip or animated visual to appear on the lock screen while the content plays, along with placeholder artwork as the animation loads, the report added.

Why It's Important: Although Apple has released the tools for developers now, end users won't see this feature in third-party apps until iOS 26 officially launches this fall.

As of now, it remains unclear whether Spotify, one of Apple Music's biggest rivals, will adopt the feature. Spotify did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments.

Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings show a steady decline in Apple's performance across short, medium and long-term periods. Additional performance details can be found here.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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