What to know

  • The Music Haptics feature on the iOS 18 is a great accessibility feature that lets you ‘feel’ the music.
  • Music Haptics requires iPhone 12 or later, an Apple Music subscription, and the iOS 18 update.
  • Enable Music Haptics from the Settings app > Accessibility > Music Haptics > On.
  • The Music Haptics icon appears on the now playing screen.

Although designed as an accessibility feature, Music Haptics on iOS 18 is not only for those who’re hard of hearing. The feature lets you feel haptics while listening to songs on Apple Music – something that music lovers all over the world will appreciate. If you own an iPhone that is relatively recent, your device will have support for Music Haptics. Here’s everything you need to know to get started with Music Haptics on iPhone.

Requirements for Music Haptics on the iPhone

To start using Music Haptics, make sure you have the following first:

  1. iPhone 12 or later (but not iPhone SE 3rd generation).
  2. iOS 18 update installed
  3. Apple Music subscription

If you meet the requirements above, you can go ahead and enable and start listening to songs with haptics on.

Step-by-step guide to enable Music Haptics on iPhone

Follow the guide below to learn how to turn on the haptics mode for music on your iPhone.

  1. Open the Settings app and tap on Accessibility.
  2. Select Music Haptics.
  3. Turn Music Haptics to On.

You can check out a sample to hear (and feel!) what the feature does.  

Video guide to enable Music Haptics on iPhone

How to listen to songs with Music Haptics 

Music Haptics works with Apple Music, Apple Classical and Shazam. No love is shown to Spotfiy or YouTube Music, unfortunately (and predictably). When you play a song in a supported app, the haptics will sync with the song and you’ll see the Music Haptics icon on now playing screen.  

Image: Reddit

The feature uses the iPhone’s Taptics engine to let you experience music physically and does a pretty good job easily distinguishing the beats and the notes. Keeping it on all the time may not be so good for the battery. And it’s not the ideal way to fall asleep to a song either. So you may not want to use it all the time. But if you don’t find it a bother, more power to you!