Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless now available on Apple Music for Android

Apple officially launched the new Spatial Audio feature on its Apple Music for iPhone, iPad and Mac users in June, bringing a new dimension to its customers' music streaming experience. 

Initially, as mentioned, it was only available to subscribers using its own hardware. However, it is now available for Android users. 

The app was recently updated for Android and now includes both Lossless audio and Spatial Audio, with lots of promotion for the latter in the browsing section of the app. 

How to use Lossless Apple Music on Android

In order to make use of Lossless audio quality in Apple Music on Android you need a wired connection to headphones, amp or powered speakers. Depending on how high you want the quality to be you might also need a DAC (digital-to-analog converter). Specifically, if you want to listen to anything above 48kHz (ie. Hi-Res Lossless), you'll need one. 

To enable Lossless (or disable it) on Android: 

• Open your Apple Music app
• Tap the More three dot menu button
• Tap Settings the 'Audio Quality'
• Now tap 'Lossless' to enable or disable it.
• You can also choose from between Lossless (24-bit/48kHz) or Hi-Res Lossless (24-bit/192kHz)

How to use Spatial Audio in Apple Music on Android 

In order to use Spatial Audio on an Android phone you need a device that supports Dolby Atmos. This is a feature that's been added to a lot of modern Android devices with stereo speakers, but you'll need to check the spec list of your device specifically to make sure. 

The same is true for headphones. You'll need to check if your wireless buds or over-ear cans are compatible with Dolby Atmos. 

Once you've done that, you'll just need to select a playlist or album that shows the 'Spatial Audio' and Dolby Atmos label on it, and play it. 

Lossless and Spatial Audio initial launch

In its initial announcement, Apple said: "By default, Apple Music will automatically play Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos tracks on all AirPods® and Beats headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as well as the built-in speakers in the latest versions of iPhone®, iPad®, and Mac®. Spatial Audio on Apple Music will also be coming soon to Android devices." [Emphasis ours].

For Apple users, both Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio launched on Monday, 7 June, bringing Hi-Res and CD quality audio streaming to compatible devices.  You can find out how to turn it on and get it working here. 

Spatial Audio does what the name suggests, bringing a perception of being surrounded by sounds adding a sense of distance and direction to different parts of the track. 

Having listened to a number of playlists and albums, some tracks lend themselves to it much better than others, and it's very much a case of listening to a lot of music to find out which ones are better optimised. 

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