We announced almost a month ago that the upcoming iOS 14.5 update would enable iPhone users to change their default music app, permanently replacing Apple Music. Still, Apple has now stated that this will not be the case.
When asking Siri to play music, users testing the new operating system’s beta version found that the assistant would ask which service they’d like to use. Apple explained to TechCrunch that it does not consider this to be “setting a norm.”
Apple’s iOS 14 introduced the option to adjust your default web browser and email applications, ensuring that all new links are opened in your preferred browser, and new emails are composed in your preferred email app. Still, the same isn’t true for music App.
There isn’t a setting in the settings menu that allows you to choose your default music App in email and web browsers. The feature has to do with Siri’s learning capabilities.
When you ask the virtual assistant to play you an album, it will show you a list of installed apps to choose from and learn from your selection. If you ask Siri for a podcast or an audiobook, Siri would hopefully learn which apps you use for each purpose and incorporate them more easily when you make Siri requests.
Changing Siri’s habits isn’t as simple as selecting your choice once. The assistant can ask you the same question again in the future, according to Apple.
Users can still indicate their preferred app in the initial voice command – “Play Brian Eno on Spotify,” for example – but there’s no indication that a true default alternative is on the way.
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Although this feature’s complexity can seem minor, they represent Apple’s wider antipathy toward competing third-party companies.
Spotify and Apple have fought in the past about whether Apple’s exclusive conduct is anti-competitive. Owing to the tax that Apple receives on services sold on its website, users who sign up for Spotify via the App Store unwittingly give a portion of their subscription to Apple.
Given the number of iPhone users who can use the App Store, Spotify claims that this is an unfair use of its supremacy in the tech industry.
Given this, it’s obvious that Apple’s reluctance to allow true “default” settings for services that compete with Apple Music App has something to do with the ongoing feud.