Microsoft Overhauls 'Groove' Music Streaming App for iOS - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Microsoft Overhauls 'Groove' Music Streaming App for iOS

by

Microsoft announced an overhaul of its Groove music app for iOS yesterday, featuring a redesigned interface and a handful of new features for the subscription-based service, home to over 40 million tracks.

The 3.5.6 update promises a much faster sign-in for mobile users of the $9.99-per-month service and introduces a new Explore view to the UI where users can discover popular songs and new releases from top artists.

Microsoft Groove iOS
The update also offers significant improvements to playback reliability, as well as faster download of songs and albums for offline playing. Lossless OneDrive support and new sorting options when viewing music collections have also been implemented.

In addition, the update includes fixes to the sync process that requires users' music collections to be rebuilt from scratch, which Microsoft promises is a one-time procedure, as well as optimizations to screen resolution to support larger mobile displays.

The app still needs to be in the foreground to download music, although Microsoft says a background download feature is coming in a future update. 

Microsoft Groove is a free download for iPhone and iPad available from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

Red Oak Avatar
132 months ago
Who knew they even had a music streaming service. DOA
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MH01 Avatar
132 months ago
Did not know this existed.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Blakjack Avatar
132 months ago
Definitely didn't know they had a music app.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Daws001 Avatar
132 months ago
Microsoft has a music app? o_O
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
machpost Avatar
132 months ago
Cool, I can finally listen to WMAs on my iPhone.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rychiar Avatar
132 months ago
Cool, I can finally listen to WMAs on my iPhone.
WMAs? is it the 90's? lol
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Gurman: iPhone Ultra Wows Early Testers, Except for Its Camera

Sunday August 23, 2026 11:19 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone Ultra is winning over the few people who have had hands-on time with the device, though the camera setup may leave some users wanting, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says people who have used the device – which is reportedly referred to internally as the iPhone Ultra – like how it fits in your...
Four iPhone 18 Pro Colors Mock Feature

iPhone 18 Pro: Pre-Orders and Release Date

Thursday August 20, 2026 8:00 am PDT by
Apple has yet to reveal when the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra will be announced and released, but the dates usually follow a familiar pattern. As usual, the iPhone event is expected to take place in the first half of September. Labor Day falls on September 7 this year. The last time the holiday was on that day was in 2020, but the iPhone event that year was delayed until October due to...
Rivian Explains Why CarPlay Debate Will Become Completely Obsolete Feature

iOS 27 Introduces CarPlay's Biggest New Feature in Years

Monday August 17, 2026 2:38 pm PDT by
Back at WWDC 2025, Apple revealed that it was planning to allow CarPlay users to watch video via AirPlay in their vehicles while they are not driving, but we did not hear many specific details about this functionality until recently. In a WWDC 2026 video aimed at developers, Apple said the CarPlay video feature is available in new vehicles that support it. When playing a video in an iPhone...