Apple Music for Android Updated with Home Screen Widget

Do you listen to Apple Music on your Android device? Apple Music for Android now has a widget that you can activate to control the playback of songs and programs on the service right from your device’s home screen.

With Apple Music’s Android home screen widget, you can play or pause songs, go back to the previous track, skip to the next track, and like or unlike a song.

Now you might be wondering: How come Apple Music gets to have a widget on the home screen on Android when it doesn’t even have a widget in Notification Center on iOS. Well, it’s simply because playback of audio for Apple Music — and for just about any app that supports background audio — is already possible from Control Center.

It’s worth noting, though, that Apple Music for Android was previously updated with a feature that Apple Music for iOS doesn’t — and probably will never — have: support for downloading songs to an SD card.

In addition to the new home screen widget, Apple Music for Android has just been updated with a handful of other improvements.

These include support for adding songs from the Apple Music catalog to playlists without having to add them to your library, along with the following new abilities:

• Redeem gift cards in Settings to renew your membership using iTunes credit
• See what’s playing on Beats 1 directly from the Radio tab — without having to tune in
• Tap the name of the currently playing song in Now Playing to go to the album
• See which songs are most popular on albums in the Apple Music catalog

Compatible with Android 4.3 and up, Apple Music for Android is available on the Google Play Store for free.

Note that the app is still in beta.

Apple Music for Android was released in November.

Apart from iOS and Android, Apple Music is available on Mac and PC via iTunes.

Across all of its supported platforms, Apple Music offers a free three-month trial, after which the service will cost $9.99 per month.