iOS 26 Offers Full-Screen Animated Album Art on iPhone's Lock Screen
The rumor was true: iOS 26 introduces an option to view full-screen animated album art on the iPhone's Lock Screen for certain Apple Music songs.
To enter the full-screen mode, simply tap on the album art in the Lock Screen's music player for the song that is currently playing, and the artwork will expand and become animated, which contributes to a more immersive listening experience.
Animated album art was already visible in the Apple Music app for many popular songs, and now it has come to the Lock Screen for the first time.
Not all songs have animated artwork, but the selection is growing.
This is a nice touch that complements the new Liquid Glass design, which allows background content to shine through the interface elements.
iOS 26 is available now in developer beta, with a public beta to follow next month. The update will be released later this year for the iPhone 11 and newer.
Popular Stories
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2.
iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4, which means we're going to see a public launch as soon as next week. The RC versions of the software include Apple's official release notes, giving us final details on what's included in the update.
Apple Music
- Playlist Playground (beta) generates a playlist from your...
