Long-awaited Apple Music feature returns in iOS 17.3 beta 1, but will we see it in the official release?

Apple Music app on iPhone, across multiple devices

(Image credit: Apple)

Have you been waiting for collaborative Apple Music Playlists since they were announced back at WWDC 2023? The feature has been added (again) to the latest iOS 17.3 beta.

We’ve seen Apple Music Collaborative Playlists in the iOS 17 and iOS 17.2 betas, yet the feature never appeared in the official releases. Now, Apple has brought the much-anticipated Apple Music addition that allows users to build playlists with friends and family back in iOS 17.3 beta 1, but will it make the cut when the official release comes around?

Collaborative Playlists brings a feature that we’ve seen in Spotify for years to Apple Music, allowing you to easily share existing playlists or new ones and collaborate to create the ultimate listening experience.

By default, only the person who has created can add songs, but this can be changed easily in settings so that everyone can be the DJ. Apple updated its iOS 17 features documentation earlier this month, stating that the Collaborative Playlists feature would be “coming in an update in 2024,” which aligns with the expected early 2024 release date of 17.3.

Back to Apple Music — iMore’s take

Playlist collaboration is one of the reasons I made a switch from Apple Music to Spotify last year, and I’ve become reliant on the feature to find new music from my friends who have similar tastes to mine. By adding this feature to iOS 17, Apple will finally make a lot of loyal Apple Music subscribers very happy with a feature that adds the social aspect often missed in Apple’s streaming service.

Hopefully, we get to see Apple Music Collaborative Playlists when iOS 17.3 officially releases next year, but until then, I’ll be sticking with Spotify and my shared playlists that help me find new music daily.

More from iMore

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019. John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.