With the release of iOS 26.4, Apple Music’s Playlist Playground can now generate playlists with the help of AI. Best of all, you don’t need an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone to take advantage of the new feature. As long as you’re a US Apple Music subscriber with your language set to English, you can start using Playlist Playground right now. Here’s how to get started.
How to create playlists using Playlist Playground
A pair of screenshots showing off Apple Music’s new Playlist Playground feature. (Igor Bonifacic for Engadget)
For the time being, there are two ways to access Playlist Playground. For the time being, the company is highlighting the feature within the “Top Picks for You” section of Apple Music’s Home tab. If you don’t see a shortcut there, Apple integrated the feature into the app’s existing playlist creation tool. Just tap the new icon found in the Library tab. If you’re new to Apple Music, the flow looks like this:
Navigate to the “Library” tab.
Tap the playlist creation button.
Write a prompt describing the mood or style of music you want to hear.
To help people get started, Apple provides a selection of sample prompts. One pro tip: it’s possible to use metadata in conjunction with Playlist Playground. For example, after Apple Music generates a playlist, you can tell Apple’s model to edit it by removing any songs released before 2016. Of course, you’re also free to add and remove songs manually as you please.
Once you’re happy with your new playlist, Apple Music treats all Playlist Playground mixes like it does any other playlist, meaning you can save it to your Library, download for offline playback, play it from your Apple Watch and share it with friends and invite them to add songs.
FAQ
What Apple devices is Playlist Playground available on?
As of the writing of this article, Playlist Playground is a beta release only available to Apple Music subscribers in the US with their preferred language set to English. An iPhone or iPad running iOS 26.4, or an Apple Vision headset running visionOS 26.4 is also required.
As Apple releases the feature in more countries and languages, we’ll update this article.
Is Playlist Playground available on Android?
Yes, if you use Apple Music on Android, Playlist Playground is available there too.
How does Playlist Playground work?
When generating mixes, Playlist Playground pulls from both trending data and your personal listening history. Along with other AI-powered Apple Music features like AutoMix and Lyrics Translation, Playlist Playground runs as part of the Apple Music service. That’s one of the reasons Apple can offer it outside of Apple Intelligence-capable devices.
