Apple is not promoting this Apple Music feature coming in iOS 18

Last month we discussed a cool feature reportedly heading to Apple Music with the iOS 18 update. This feature is called Smart Crossfade and is supposed to make transitioning between songs seamless without hearing gaps of silence between tunes. While the song currently playing fades out, the next song starts to fade in. When I was in radio back in the day, this would be used when two songs were played back-to-back without any ads or DJ patter between songs.

Apple added Crossfade for Apple Music in iOS 17 but plans on making it smarter in iOS 18. Smart Crossfade is more seamless and not every transition between songs will allow for a fade out and a fade in; some will start immediately after the last word is sung on the tune currently playing. 

Apple is also making sure that the feature doesn't change how an album sounds when the feature is enabled. A good example of this is the suite or medley (whichever you want to call it) of songs on  side 2 of the The Beatles'  Abbey Road album. This brilliant piece of musicianship, songwriting, and performing starts with "You Never Give Me Your Money" and continues through the end of the album with the 23-second "Her Majesty." With the Smart Crossfade feature, the songs will segue right into each other as they do on the album.

Smart Crossfade turns on once you enable Crossfire in the Apple Music app's settings (more on that later). With Crossfade, users can set the length of the crossfade from one second to 12 seconds. If you're an Apple Music subscriber running the iOS 18 beta, you can try Smart Crossfade. Go to Settings > Music and toggle on Crossfade. Play around with the settings until you find which Crossfade length (again, you can choose between one second and 12 seconds) you prefer. You can still do this to activate Crossfade in iOS 17 although you won't get the new Smart Crossfade features until iOS 18 is installed.