Back in 2019, we met macOS Catalina, as well as the “end” of iTunes. The latter was replaced by an app that worked better with the iOS and tvOS strategy. Its features were split into podcasts, music, and TV apps. And that seemed like a very good idea, but there is one teeny-tiny problem. The new Music app is not that different from iTunes. The new streaming elements look and act like web pages, and that we cannot get over. It doesn’t work as we expected it to, and it does not make it neither easy nor fun for us to use it. Now, the company is rebuilding its idea, and we’re in for it.
Developers are still tasting the beta version of the next macOS Monterey update, 12.2. And there’s a surprise for us there – an updated version of the Music app. The part that looks like iTunes will still be there, but it seems that both the Music and the TV app will now use native AppKit views, and not web views. This should make things run faster, and it should make our lives easier when navigating the streaming apps. The music library is the same, but searching for songs is much faster. Scrolling is smoother, and the trackpad gestures are even more responsive now.
If you want to join the beta program, you can try, as it became available on Thursday. MacBook Pro laptop owners will also see a difference in the ProMotion scrolling that’s supported in Safari – it has improved a lot. If you’re not sure whether you should try it or not, you may want to wait until things become official.
