Latest iOS 16 Beta Adds Full-Screen Music Player for Lock Screen - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Latest iOS 16 Beta Adds Full-Screen Music Player for Lock Screen

Apple today seeded revised third betas of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 to developers, along with the first iOS and iPadOS 16 public betas. Both of these updates add a new Lock Screen feature - a full-screen music player.

lockscreen feature
Since iOS 10, the music player on the Lock Screen has been available as a smaller card-style player that only takes up a small portion of the screen with a miniature version of the album art.

With the latest iOS 16 beta, album art is shown front and center, and a separate smaller music player is available below it for controlling playback. The album art dictates the color of the background of the Lock Screen, but if you tap at the bottom of the display, you can go back to your standard wallpaper and minimize the player.

To get back to the album art interface, just tap on the album icon on the minimized player.

The larger music player on the Lock Screen is part of the iOS 16 Lock Screen overhaul that allows users to customize their Lock Screens with unique colors, fonts, and looks. Apple demonstrated the new full-screen music player at WWDC, but it was not available in the iOS 16 beta until today.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Popular Stories

Apple Event Logo

Apple to Release These 15 New Products Later This Year

Friday June 12, 2026 7:45 am PDT by
Apple's annual WWDC developers conference is drawing to a close, but there is still a lot to look forward to in the second half of the year. Apple is expected to release at least 15 more products later this year. Now that the more intelligent and personal version of Siri has finally arrived in beta, a full two years after Apple first previewed it at WWDC 2024, we should begin to see some new ...
Apple Lists 250 Changes Across iOS 27 and More Feature

Apple Shares List of 250 Changes Across iOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, and More

Wednesday June 10, 2026 1:34 pm PDT by
During its WWDC 2026 keynote on Monday, Apple briefly showed a slide with hundreds of new features and enhancements coming across iOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, watchOS 27, tvOS 27, and visionOS 27. All of the software updates are currently available as developer betas, and they are expected to be released to all users in September. We already highlighted some of the key new features from the ...
liquid glass app icon

Apple Maps to Get These 10 New Features in iOS 27

Thursday June 11, 2026 5:45 am PDT by
Apple Maps is getting a range of new features in iOS 27, headlined by an upgraded Flyover experience that uses AI to improve the realism and detail of its aerial imagery. Flyover is a longstanding feature of Apple Maps and lets users explore more than 350 cities in 3D with detailed landmarks, roads, parks, and buildings. Apple described the enhanced Flyover in iOS 27 as combining aerial...

Top Rated Comments

51 months ago
It’s a lockscreen, a glanceable complications center and an iPod.

A lockscreen, an Apple Watch and an iPod.

A lockscreen, an Apple Watch and an iPod.

Are you getting it?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
211 Avatar
51 months ago
Still no option to Like/Dislike, loop or shuffle. Who spends more than a second to look at the album art that Apple felt making it bigger was what people wanted?
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tastesliketailpipe Avatar
51 months ago
Finally!

Artwork is important. At least it’s important to me. Brings me closer to the music.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BWhaler Avatar
51 months ago
Can you swipe on the album art to advance songs or replay? So odd Apple doesn’t have this feature, even in the music app.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BrownyQ Avatar
51 months ago
This takes me back to my first iPhone experience, when the lock screen would be dominated by the Music app when playing. I'm so happy to have this back, it's the small dumb things that make me happy.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
51 months ago

I have no problem with the album art and it can be prominently featured in the Musis app itself. But on the Lock Screen? How many people stare at the album artwork on the Lock Screen for long? I still don’t care as long as it doesn’t sacrifice functions that would be useful, but here it does (and always has done as these functions have never been directly accessible). At least give the user the option on what they want
You can turn it off by tapping the album art.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)