iOS 18 Apple Music Animated Album Art Options

Apple Music in iOS 18 provides immersive, full-screen animated album art designed to transform both the in-app player and the device Lock Screen. This guide covers the supported display modes, playback environments, and system settings available for animated album artwork in iOS 18.

In-App Full-Screen Now Playing View

When playing a track from a supported album, the standard square album cover expands to fill the entire screen behind the playback controls. The animation flows edge-to-edge, smoothly blending into a blurred gradient at the bottom where the playback bar, volume slider, and navigation buttons reside. If you switch to the live-synced lyrics view, the animated artwork remains active as a dynamic, moving background beneath the text.

Lock Screen Full-Screen Animated Player

iOS 18 supports full-screen animated artwork directly on the Lock Screen:

  • Expanded View: Tapping the album art on the compact Lock Screen media player expands the artwork to cover the entire display, applying a continuous animated background behind the clock and notification area.
  • Minimized View: Tapping the full-screen artwork minimizes it back into the standard compact media card, preserving standard Lock Screen wallpapers.

Supported System Settings

You can manage how and when animated artwork loads to balance visual performance with data and battery consumption. In the iOS Settings app under Settings > Music > Animated Art, Apple provides three core options:

  • On: Animated artwork plays continuously across cellular data and Wi-Fi networks whenever an album supports it.
  • Wi-Fi Only: Animations are restricted to Wi-Fi connections. On cellular data, Apple Music displays static album art to conserve mobile bandwidth.
  • Off: Fully disables animated cover art across the app and Lock Screen, replacing all instances with traditional static album covers.

Battery and Accessibility Behaviors

Animated album art in iOS 18 also adapts to global system settings:

  • Low Power Mode: Enabling Low Power Mode automatically pauses full-screen animations to conserve device battery life, reverting the display to a still frame of the artwork.
  • Reduce Motion: Enabling "Reduce Motion" in Settings > Accessibility > Motion disables the motion effects of animated album art across both Apple Music and the Lock Screen.