Apple Music has, for a long time, let you share music tracks to social media and communication apps in a uniquely formatted manner. However, as of iOS 14.5 Beta 2, you can now also share lyrics from songs to iMessage and Instagram.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at how to share song lyrics from Apple Music to iMessage and Instagram.
Related Posts:
- How to add lyrics to the wonderful songs in your Apple Music Library
- How to stop voice messages on iMessage from disappearing automatically
The sharing process and how lyrics appear when you share them
Previously when you could only share songs, Apple Music would create a beautiful Instagram story for you based on the color accent of the album art. You could also share songs to iMessage in a similar fashion.
Now that you can share lyrics as well, they are also presented in a creative fashion for sharing.
For instance, when you share lyrics from a Song on Apple Music, the app lets you choose certain lines of lyrics you intend to share. You can only select lyrics up to 150 characters. That way, it depends on the lyrics you choose.
The more the words per sentence, the lesser lines of lyrics you’ll be able to share at once. On the other hand, if you choose lyrics with fewer words per sentence, you can select as many sentences until the 150-word limit is fulfilled.
While sharing lyrics to a recipient on iMessage, they are formatted in a uniquely creative manner. The lyrics are placed line by line in the foreground of a blurred album art cover and the title of the song, accompanied by the Apple Music logo, is placed on the label below the lyrics.
While sharing lyrics to a recipient on Instagram, the design of the lyrics plaque appears in the same fashion as while sharing via iMessage. What’s different here is that Apple Music automatically customizes the background of the Instagram story with an accent that matches that of the cover art.
It’s also worth noting that while sharing Apple Music lyrics to your Instagram Story, the background appears to be animated, which is a nice addition.
Moreover, tapping the shared lyrics plaque takes you to the specific lyric that was shared with you on Apple Music.
Why would you want to share Apple Music lyrics?
Apple Music’s song sharing feature is quite a handy way of expressing your love (or hate) for a song to your friends and followers.
It offers an easy way to share songs and users no longer have to relatively spend time formatting the layout since Apple Music already does it for you. This is similar to how Spotify offers sharing songs on its platform.
Just like why people want to share songs, people also want to share specific lyrics from songs to get their point across. Lyrics are capable of truly expressing what’s going on in one’s mind and their affiliation with artists gives people a sense of companionship.
There are certain specific scenarios in which users could benefit, nay, have fun sharing lyrics.
- You can have a lyrics showdown on a one-on-one or a group chat with friends on iMessage.
- You can share a line from a song that hit you straight in the feelings to your Instagram Story.
- You can throw shade on someone by sharing lyrics from a diss track on your Instagram Story.
- You can propose to someone by sending them lyrics from their favorite song via iMessage.
- You can always spam someone with multiple lines of lyrics from their most hated song to piss them off. We love this one the most.
A thing about sharing lyrics on Apple Music
When you go about sharing lyrics on Apple Music, you are given the option to select lines of lyrics up to 150 characters. One catch is that you are only allowed to share consecutive lines of lyrics.
So, if you plan on picking different lines of lyrics from throughout your song, you cannot do so yet. It’s unclear if Apple will add that functionality in the future iOS 14.5 beta versions. However, until then, you’re going to have to live with the fact that you can only share a specific portion of your song lyrics to iMessage or Instagram.
Moreover, you can only share song lyrics to three places yet: iMessage, Instagram, and Airdrop.
How to share Apple Music song lyrics to iMessage
- Head over to the Apple Music app on your iPhone.
- Choose a song whose lyrics you intend to share.
- Tap on the three dots beside the song. A pop-up menu should appear.
- Tap Share Lyrics.
- Scroll through the lines of lyrics and choose the lyrics you want to share. Chosen lyrics will be highlighted in the accent of the album art.
- Tap Messages from the cover sheet below the lyrics.
- Choose who you want to send the lyrics to.
- Add a comment if you want.
- Finally, tap the blue send button. (Blue circle with a white upwards-facing arrow inside).
How to share Apple Music song lyrics to Instagram Story
- Head over to the Apple Music app on your iPhone.
- Choose a song whose lyrics you intend to share.
- Tap on the three dots beside the song. A pop-up menu should appear.
- Tap Share Lyrics.
- Scroll through the lines of lyrics and choose the lyrics you want to share. Chosen lyrics will be highlighted in the accent of the album art.
- Tap Instagram from the cover sheet below the lyrics.
- Instagram will automatically prepare and format a story for you. You can either add comments by tapping on an empty space on your story template or add stickers and gifs.
- When you’re done tweaking your story and are ready to publish it, tap Send To.
- Beside Your Story, tap Share.
Final Thoughts
I have written on The 8-Bit previously that Apple Music is a constantly evolving platform. While it still kind of pales in comparison to Spotify in terms of a lot of aspects, Apple is adding features drop-by-drop into the ocean that is Apple Music.
Apart from the ability to share lyrics, Apple Music on iOS 14.5 also adds new features such as swipe options and a few design tweaks.
Apple Music is yet to improve a lot. For one, people have been demanding for it to add a true queueing system where you can simply keep adding songs to the queue instead of constantly having to tap Play Later.
There is still a long way to go, but I’m certain Apple Music is on the path to compete head-on with Spotify.
What are your thoughts on Apple Music’s new lyrics sharing feature? Let us know in the comments section below.
