What's Playing10.3.1 - App Store

What's Playing? is a simplified playback overlay for the Music App - if you just want to know what you're listening to at a glance, What's Playing? will tell you.

Let's say you're listening to a random playlist in Music - in the car, for example - and hear something you've not heard recently. You want to find out who is singing...

What's Playing? shows you that info in real time, and in big enough text to read at a glance, meaning you don't get distracted, or crash the car!

Want to skip to the next track? Just Swipe Right. How about just tapping the screen to pause or play the song? Using two fingers to scan through the song on fast-forward/rewind? Or, if enabled, using 3D Touch to see what album the song is on?

Choose from different color schemes, including night-time driving.

What's Playing? - for when you just want to know who's playing what - quickly, easily, and WITHOUT CRASHING THE CAR!

NOTE: What's Playing? only works with the Music App and will not work for non-Music sources such as Spotify, Bandcamp, Tidal, etc.

Version History New press & hold approach:

- Left third of screen -> Scrub Backwards
- Middle of screen -> Show Album
- Right of screen -> Scrub Forwards

No more two finger swiping to scrub! 10.3.1 12/27/2025 Back-end clean up - no change in functionality 10.2.2 01/08/2023 No major update - just fixed a couple of minor breaks due to iOS update:

1) Lock Artist functionality began defaulting to first track for artist, rather than continuing from the currently playing track
2) the "Which Album is this on?" screen had stopped showing on long press

Both are now fixed! 10.2.1 08/19/2021 No major changes in functionality.

Bug fixes:
1) in iOS 13.7 - What's Playing? would not recognize that Music was open and/or playing - v. 10.1.1, app works in iOS 13.7 - however, if you still hit the bug, delete the app from your device and download a fresh copy (this guidance is reflected in the status screen)
2)Fixed an intermittent bug where What's Playing? would not reflect Shuffle and/or Repeat status in the Music App 10.1.1 09/12/2020 1) Fix for 2-finger audio scrubbing error
2) No other changes 9.3.1 03/24/2020 Minor release:
- Neatened up overlay buttons - easier to see and interact
- Update for iOS13 Music
- Fix for iOS13 Light/Dark mode
- Miscellaneous tweaks 9.2.1 11/05/2019 Minor update - no change to content or functionality 8.2.1 09/02/2019 1) Added Lock Artist functionality - or what we call the "Radiohead Button" - for when you just want What's Playing? to play the same artist by album/song order
2) Added Shuffle and Repeat functionality, so you don't have to jump back into Music so much
3) Added Shuffle Library functionality to nuke your current playlist and shuffle everything in your collection
4) All of this is now in a Swipe Down/Up menu with hot corners, keeping things simple and elegant 8.1.1 07/04/2019 Fixed display bug for iPhone X 7.1.1 10/19/2018 What's Playing? has been updated to include some great functionality:

1) Tap anywhere on screen for PLAY/PAUSE
2) Two-finger Drag right/left to scrub through track audio
3) Now shows artist/song info for Apple Radio
(NOTE: Skip/Scrub functionality does NOT work for Apple Radio)
4) Added Elapsed/Remaining Time
5) Other minor updates 6.1.3 07/30/2018 No change to functionality. Tweaks to fit iOS 10.3.1 - What's Playing will seek permission to access playback of songs within Apple Music. 5.0.1 04/06/2017 Updated for iOS10 4.0.1 10/15/2016 Minor update - tweaked Swipe Left functionality. 3.0.1 06/20/2016 Added links to our other apps from settings page. 2.5.3 03/22/2016 2.5.2 01/27/2016