Automix is the Apple Music feature that made me love listening to music on my iPhone again

Date:
Wed, 17 Sep 2025 20:00:00 +0000

Description:
AutoMix comes as an upgrade to Apple Music as part of the new iOS 26 update, and it sounds great.

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Dad, youve got to try this, its amazing!

You know Apple is onto something when your teenage son excitedly tells you about a new feature on his iPhone thats arrived thanks to a simple upgrade to iOS 26 .

Im talking about a small feature that you might easily skip over when you upgrade, but it might just be my favorite thing about the new iOS 26 iPhone update. It's called AutoMix.

When turned on, AutoMix blends the end of one song into the start of the next one, but it does so intelligently, in a way that sounds pleasing to the ear and gives each song the respect it deserves.

Sometimes AutoMix will leave a gap between songs, and other times it will overlap them or use beatmatching to change a songs time signature to match whats coming up next. Usually it does a good job, although tracks with false endings can definitely catch it out.

If I just take the playlist that Apple Music has created for me based on Bon Ivers Hey Ma as an example, Bon Ivers 29 #Strafford APTS fades out just as
the four-count intro to Mumford & Sons The Wolf starts off, and they overlap as if they were meant to work together like that.

Some users have complained that using AutoMix results in track shortening , and while that is sometimes true, I havent really found this to be a distraction when Ive used it. Im more interested in waiting for one song to end and another to start so that I can hear exactly how AutoMix has mixed
them together. (Image credit: Brett Jordan / Unsplash) How to use AutoMix

AutoMix works across Apple Music on all your Apple devices, so its not
limited to iPhone, but that seems to be where I use it most.

It can be turned on and off at any time by using a new toggle button that appears on the far right next to the usual player controls for looping
tracks, playing continuously on an auto-generating playlist and shuffling the current playlist.

AutoMix doesnt work on albums; it works on playlists that you or other users have created, or Apple Music stations.

Its not clear entirely how AutoMix works its magic. Apple says it uses intelligence, but does that mean it's using artificial intelligence? I think it must be. Either way, it works on iPhones that cant run regular Apple Intelligence features, so it doesnt require the full power of Apple Intelligence. Perhaps some AI is being done on a server somewhere in Apple land, rather than on the device?

While the exact details of how it works remain a mystery, its a feature that youll also find in Spotify, which cheekily added the feature to playlists
just before the iOS 26 release so that Apple wouldnt be the only one shouting about it amongst the best streaming music services . Sleep detection

What I particularly like about AutoMix is that it doesnt do anything crazy; quite often, it just leaves a beat pause between the two tracks in a way that sounds right.

In fact, it can easily lull you into a dreamlike state as your playlist start to blend together.

Its a good job that another of Apples new iOS 26 features is that AirPods can now detect when youve fallen asleep and pause playback Ive got a feeling Im going to find that feature useful in the months ahead. You might also like Apple Music radio stations are now available for free on TuneIn here are three Id start with first Im a huge Spotify fan but Apple Music does these 7 things much better and theyre tempting me to switch Apple Music is celebrating 10 years with a personalized All Time Playlist, and theres a way for Spotify listeners to get in on the action



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/audio/apple-music/automix-is-the-apple-music-feature -that-made-me-love-listening-to-music-on-my-iphone-again


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