(Mirror Daily, United States) – Currently available only for iOS users, Apple Music is set to roll out on Google’s arch-rival Android platform as well this fall, and according to these leaked photos, we should expect to see the app in final form anytime now.
As reported by Mobile Geeks, a German website, Apple Music is undergoing private beta tests on Android users, and these leaked screenshots back up their claims. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple Music is doing rather fine at 6.5 million paying subscribers – even though the numbers are down from the 11 million peak taking advantage of the initial 90-day free trial.
This is, however, not the first time Apple releases an app for Android; the first one was, wait for it… “Move to iOS,” an app that got pummeled so hard on its launch day that surely Apple wishes it never got the idea in the first place.
Back to Apple Music’s app, the screenshots reveal the functionality is similar to the iOS version, including the full Apple Music catalog, Beats 1 Radio, and a pleasant surprise wrapped up in the form of a strong recommendation engine.
However, there are some features, like the ability to extend the size of the cache for songs that can be played offline, that will be available solely on the Android app. But most of all, the screenshots reveal a peculiar “translation” of an iOS app on an Android platform.
Sure, it didn’t help that the news were delivered in the form of a bad Google translation from German, but it’s strange to see that the iOS sleek feel missing from an Apple app. Instead of recreating that, the Silicon Valley company has opted for lots of Android UI elements – including the slide-out sidebar navigation and the infamous hamburger menu.
This is clearly a departure from app “translations” we’ve witnessed, such as Google’s iOS version of YouTube; the unwritten rules for that transition seemed to be “keep as close as possible to the company’s Material Design framework,” and “don’t blend into the iOS look and feel.”
Android users – which make up an immense user base of roughly 2 billion active devices – should expect to get the app next month, according to Mobile Geeks. For those who have forgotten, a quick refresher: the Apple Music app isn’t free. If you want it, you’ll probably also have to pay the $9.99 /month.
Image Source: Digital Trends