Tactile feedback for music allows deaf and hearing-impaired users to experience music in a new way on iPhone. When this feature is enabled, iPhone’s Taptic Engine produces taps, textures, and refined vibrations that follow the music.
Tactile feedback for music is available for millions of songs in the Apple Music catalog and will also be made available as an API so that all developers can increase the accessibility of the music in their apps.
Music with tactile feedback
Starting in iOS 18, users can enable tactile feedback for Apple Music in the Music app if desired. When you play a song, the Taptic Engine in the device will produce taps, textures and refined vibrations that follow the music. This way you as a user get an idea of ​​how exciting, calm or varied the rhythm of the music is.
Enable tactile feedback for music
- Open Settings on your iPhone
- Navigate to ‘Accessibility’
- Go to ‘Tactile music signals’
- Turn on ‘Tactile Music Cues’
If necessary, tap ‘Play example’ to immediately see and of course feel the function in action. Then, in apps that support tactile feedback, you can feel the taps and patterns when playing music.
Availability of tactile music signals
Tactile music cues play with apps like Music, Classical, Shazam, and supported third-party apps when your iPhone is connected to a Wi-Fi or cellular network. Experience music like never before with taps, textures and refined vibrations that sync with the audio from millions of Apple Music songs.
The tactile feedback is available while playing audio on iPhone speakers, wired headphones, and supported wireless headphones from Apple and Beats. Please note that the vibrations and taps shorten the battery life of your iPhone.
Manage tactile feedback in control panel
Once tactile music cues are enabled, you can quickly start or stop them in your iPhone’s Control Center. You may first have to add the controller, which you can find in the ‘Hearing – Accessibility’ category.
While a song is playing, you can also temporarily turn tactile music cues off and on in the iOS playback controls on the Lock screen. This can be recognized by the musical note with waves.