Apple Music in iOS 15 Now Has Dynamic Head Tracking

If you have an iPhone 7 or later, iOS 15, and a pair of AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, you can take advantage of dynamic head tracking audio.

With iOS 15 seeing its full release Tuesday, you now can install it and start taking advantage of all the new features—including spatial audio through Dolby Atmos. This will provide you with a sort of simulated surround sound that makes it sound like various instruments and vocals are coming from all around you.

In the case of dynamic head tracking, it even gives these audio elements a fixed point in virtual space that changes dynamically. In other words if you turn your head, the audio orientation of the instruments and vocals will appear to change. For example, if it sounds like there are drums to your right and you turn your head in that direction, it will then sound like the drums are in front of you.

The head tracking feature should be enabled by default once spatial audio is turned on—just go into your device's Bluetooth settings to toggle it. There's also a demonstration option (in Settings) you can select if you want to hear what it'll sound like before you change the settings. Once enabled, you can control the volume or turn spatial audio on and off directly from Control Center.

Dynamic head tracking is available in Apple Music now and, if you have the right equipment and turn on Spatial Audio, you can try it out whenever you'd like.