Apple yesterday released the first beta of macOS 12.2 Monterey to developers. At first glance, the beta might not seem to pack any significant features, but there is a big change. The company is revamping the Music app as a native macOS app to deliver a better user experience.
The current Apple Music app in macOS Monterey (and Catalina) uses web views, which is why it is slow and buggy to use. However, Apple is revamping the Music app with macOS Monterey 12.2 by using AppKit. This should allow the app to deliver a more fluid user experience.
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Apple debuted the Music app with the release of macOS Catalina in 2019. However, the app basically acted as a web content loader that offered a frustratingly poor user experience. The updated Music app in macOS 12.2 beta uses AppKit, the native macOS interface framework, leading to a notable improvement in its performance and smoothness.
Since Apple is rebuilding the app again, it will likely miss out on a few effects and minor features when it first launches with macOS 12.2. Eventually though, the move will allow Apple to add new features to the Music app easily while ensuring a consistent user experience.
Apple has already taken a similar approach for rebuilding the Apple TV macOS app. With the macOS Monterey 12.1 update, the company ditched web views for AppKit for the Apple TV.
