things you should know about Apple Music for Android

Apple's music service has finally arrived for Android, so now you can rock out to the 30-million song catalog or tune in to live radio on Beats One. Even more importantly, Apple Music offers the first official way to stream music you've purchased from iTunes on an Android deviceThe app is technically Apple's third-ever title for Android, after Move to iOS, an app that helps you migrate photos, contacts and messages from an Android phone to an iPhone and Beats Pill+, which allows you to control a wireless Beats Pill speaker. That's important because while Google has created several apps for iOS, Apple didn't return the favor until 2015. At first look, the apps look very similar, identical in places even. But there are some differences that affect the overall experience of using Apple Music. Here's what you need to know. You need an Apple ID to use it If you've ever purchased something from iTunes, be it a song, album, TV show, movie or something else, you have an Apple ID. But if you've somehow never used Apple's products, you'll need to create an Apple ID to use Apple Music. You can sign up for one within the app, through iTunes on a computer or on iCloud.com. The design is the same, but slightly different than iOS Apple kept much of the same design from the original iOS app, but embraced the typical Android layout too. True to Android design, the app has a left slide-out "hamburger" menu (so named for the three horizontal lines that look like a hamburger) where you can jump to different sections. That menu is where you'll find the For You, New, Radio, Connect, Playlists and My Music tabs. The hamburger menu keeps things a bit more organized, but it does make it more tedious to switch between tabs. Beyond the menu layout, the app looks a lot like the iOS version. In fact most pages look nearly identical and suffer from the same overcrowding, with tabs jam-packed with albums, playlists and other suggestions. That was my biggest gripe with the iOS app and it's still a problem with the Android app. Apple Music on Android has a streamlined design that's very similar to the iOS app. Just like the iOS app, Apple Music for Android is full of musical recommendations, human-curated playlists and radio. You can create your own playlists and access music you've purchased through iTunes on the My Music page. You can download songs, playlists and full albums for offline listening when you don't have a connection. The Connect tab lets you follow your favorite artists and see photos, songs and other updates they share. Beats One, Apple's private radio station is available, ready to listen to day or night. And when you sign up, Apple asks what genres and artists you're into so it can suggest music for you, just like the iOS app does. Music videos are missing, but Apple says those are coming shortly. Overall, there aren't many obvious omissions in the Android version. ...but there's no voice control The one significant absence is voice controls, but that has more to do with iOS than it does Apple Music. On an iPhone, iPad or iPod, you can use Siri to control the music and queue up new songs. It's one of the better features of Apple Music, because Siri understands when you ask to play more songs like the current track or when you ask to play the number one hit from 1992. That's missing from the Android app, because Siri is parts of iOS. Unfortunately, you cannot use Google Now's voice commands to control Apple Music. For example, if I ask Google Now to "play The Rolling Stones" it asks me which app to use, with a list of choices installed on my phone. Apple Music isn't on that list and if I answer with "Apple Music" Google doesn't understand the request. You cannot sign up for a family plan, yet For now, you can only sign up for an individual monthly subscription, which costs $9.99 (£9.99, AU$11.99) within the app. You still get a free three month trial, after which you'll be automatically charged unless you cancel. However, you'll need a Mac or iOS device to upgrade to a family plan, which lets up to six people share a subscription for a total of $14.99 (£14.99, AU$17.99) per month. The Android app is still in beta Apple released Apple Music on Android with a beta label, indicating that it's not quite finished and may still have bugs or other problems . While I didn't encounter major issues, other than the occasionally sluggishness, you may come across a bug or two. The app is also only available for devices running Android 4.3 and up, and doesn't appear to work on tablets right now -- I wasn't able to download it on a Nexus 7 or Nexus 9.There's an option to leave beta feedback in the menu which opens webpage with a survey. You can let Apple know about problems, and also opt-in to automatically send diagnostics about the app's performance.