Apple Music Android app brought up to par with iOS in major redesign

Playlists for instance have been merged into a Library section, where it's also possible to narrow focus to downloaded music, for offline playback. The Now Playing screen likewise matches iOS 10, adopting a card metaphor with lyrics support.

Most visibly the app has picked up iOS 10's aesthetics, which Apple suggests should offer "greater clarity and simplicity." Listeners must have a device running Android 4.3 or later.

Apple Music is one of just three apps Apple has available for Android. The others include one for its Beats Pill+ speaker, and a migration tool for carrying personal data over to iOS.

The company typically prefers to keep services exclusive to its own platforms, but skipping Android users would have left the company at a severe disadvantage next to rivals like Spotify, not to mention cut off subscribers of Beats Music, on which Apple Music is based. People might also have been more hesitant to sign up if they felt they couldn't move between devices at will.