One of many cooler options we’ve been anticipating to see in iOS 17.4 subsequent month was a brand new growth of SharePlay that will allow you to host an Apple Music occasion in your front room. Sadly, it appears like that might not be prepared for prime time, because it’s mysteriously disappeared within the third iOS 17.4 beta launched earlier this week.
The CarPlay-style SharePlay characteristic was a pleasant shock when it confirmed up within the first iOS 17.4 beta on the finish of final month, promising to permit a number of customers on the identical community to hyperlink as much as an Apple TV or HomePod and contribute to a shared play queue.
Apple is muddying the waters a bit through the use of the time period SharePlay for this, because it initially meant sharing media remotely over FaceTime, however the first launch of iOS 17 introduced a brand new dimension to the media-sharing characteristic, permitting everybody to share their favourite tunes on a street journey through CarPlay. This labored by permitting the CarPlay-connected iPhone to function a type of “host” whereas different iPhone customers might join remotely to contribute their very own songs and even management the Now Taking part in queue immediately.
Whereas the host machine marketed its willingness to share over Bluetooth, individuals might additionally join by scanning a QR code on the dashboard. These connections went via Apple’s servers, as evidenced by the truth that individuals didn’t technically should be in the identical automobile to hitch a SharePlay session; they might be anyplace on the planet so long as you despatched them a shot of the QR code to scan
With iOS 17.4, it appeared that Apple was planning to increase the identical performance to the Apple TV and HomePod, permitting comparable music sharing in a celebration setting. It’s an concept that Apple has experimented with fairly a bit over time; iTunes had a Occasion Shuffle characteristic that later grew to become iTunes DJ and even allowed your company to hitch utilizing an iPhone or iPod contact working the iTunes Distant app. It was nice enjoyable at events, nevertheless it sadly noticed its demise in iTunes 11, by no means to reappear.
Till now, that’s. This new SharePlay characteristic is principally iTunes DJ for an Apple Music era. Within the restricted time I had with it through the first iOS 17.4 beta, it labored nicely and promised to ship the identical form of collaborative occasion expertise that I had as soon as loved with iTunes — however with a catalog of over 100 million songs, reasonably than the 50,000 or so I had in my private iTunes library.
One of the best half was that, not like conventional FaceTime-based SharePlay, solely the host wanted an Apple Music subscription. That’s logical, as everyone seems to be listening in the identical room, and company are simply including to the combo that’s enjoying on the subscriber’s HomePod or Apple TV.
Doing this on the Apple TV was notably slick, as a QR code to hitch would come up on the massive display screen, letting anyone within the room shortly take part. For sharing on a HomePod, company might scan the QR code from the host’s iPhone as an alternative. Everybody and all the pieces merely needed to be working the identical iOS 17.4, tvOS 17.4, or HomePod Software program 17.4 betas.
Whereas it’s not the primary time that Apple has previewed a characteristic in a beta that hasn’t made the lower for the ultimate launch, it’s been some time because it’s performed it so early within the beta cycle. Collaborative Playlists in Apple Music appeared within the first three iOS 17.2 betas earlier than being pulled within the fourth beta, solely to reappear within the first iOS 17.3 beta. Whereas it’s doable SharePlay for Residence might nonetheless make a comeback in a future iOS 17.4 beta, it’s been lacking for 2 now, so we’re not holding out a lot hope. We’re crossing our fingers that Apple hasn’t deserted the concept completely, so perhaps it will likely be prepared for iOS 17.5.