iOS 26.1 just gave Apple’s Music app a convenient new trick

Apple Music users got a ton of new features in iOS 26, but with iOS 26.1’s release yesterday, the upgrades keep coming. iOS 26.1 introduces a new swipe gesture for changing tracks in the Music app.

iOS 26.1 lets you swipe on MiniPlayer to change tracks

Apple’s Music app in iOS 26 changed up the bottom of the screen where the MiniPlayer lives.

Now, when the tab bar is collapsed, it gets merged into a single row with the MiniPlayer and search controls.

But despite the MiniPlayer now being smaller much of the time inside the Music app, it’s gained a new feature in the latest iPhone update.

iOS 26.1 now lets you swipe left and right on the MiniPlayer to quickly, conveniently change tracks.

This works whether the MiniPlayer is fully expanded above the tab bar, or shrunk down next to the tab bar.

The new swipe gesture feels great, aided by some nice Liquid Glass effects and a tap of haptic feedback when the track is changed.

Swiping left advances to the next song in your queue, while swiping right goes back to the prior track.

Very quickly, the new gesture became second nature to me. It’s a great alternative to using the standard seek controls in the Now Playing screen.

Have you been using the new Apple Music swipe gesture in iOS 26.1? How’s it been working for you? Let us know in the comments.

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