Apple Music on Android gets lossless and spatial audio features that were exclusive to iPhones and Macs

Lossless and spatial audio are now available on Android devices after being exclusive to Apple’s products

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Android users that subscribe to Apple Music can now use some of the app’s most innovative features: spatial audio, and lossless audio.

Apple announced the two features, which create a three-dimensional soundscape and provide higher quality audio, respectively, in June 2021. Unsurprisingly, this came to Apple devices first - anything from the iPhone 8 upwards, as well as newer iPads and Macs.

Now however, lossless and spatial audio is moving out of beta for the Android application. High-resolution lossless audio will be available in the ALAC format at 24-bit/192kHz, while standard lossless audio will come in at 24-bit/48kHz.

Lossless music comes with two improvements: bits and frequencies. Bits are related to the accuracy of the signal – akin to data points on a graph, or an audio wave moving through the air. The more data points there are, the more accurate a signal is, and as such 16-bit audio is not as accurate as 24-bit audio.

Frequency, meanwhile, is how often that data point is checked. A point in a wave checked 48,000 times per second (48kHz) can be less informative than one checked 192,000 times per second (192kHz).

As Android Police, which first spotted the update, notes, the Android settings for lossless audio will require specific headphones or speakers that are capable of high-resolution playback.

As well as this new feature, Apple Music on Android now also supports automatic crossfade, which will move between songs based on their length – choosing the best moment for the song.