Happy August! Today’s Bops beta release includes Siri-powered media playback, a Widget and Control Center buttons, Genius lyrics links, and support for liking / disliking Apple Music songs from the Lock Screen while listening on Sonos. Read on for the full rundown.

Breaking changes

This version moves the backing storage for most app settings from the App bundle to the App Group bundle to enable the introduction of a WidgetKit extension. Some app settings will be reset.

New features

  • Handle + donate SiriKit media intents. Bops can now play and queue music when playing either on Sonos or the device using the same Siri commands that work in the Music app.
    • “Play the first album by The Presidents of the United States of America next”
    • “Play Dookie by Green Day later”
    • “Play some happy songs”
    • “Play some French rap”
  • Add Volume control functionality to Control Center and App Shortcuts
    • “Turn up the Bops”
  • Add support for liking Apple Music Catalog tracks playing on Sonos from lock screen
    • “I like this song” and “I don’t like this song” both work with Siri as well
  • Lookup Genius lyrics for songs, add link to menu if found & complete
  • Show troubleshooting sheet if current Sonos system Apple Music connection needs repair
  • Widget & Control Center buttons with volume controls and a “Take your queue to go” button
  • Display popular Apple Music catalog content if connected Sonos system connected to Apple Music regardless of device subscription status
  • Show all Genre stations
  • Infer popular Artists from charting Songs

Bugfixes & improvements

  • Reorganize a few things so that the app builds on Xcode 26 beta 4. Continue shipping releases with Xcode 16.4
  • Standardize music action button error handling / notifications
  • Remove ‘Sonos’ app synonym; violates rules
  • Improve reliability of system now playing info sync.
  • Omit recently playing albums from recommendations
  • Load music item tabs more efficiently
  • Improve performance of large playlists

As always, please don’t be shy with any feedback or suggestions you have about the app; please either take a screenshot and send feedback via Testflight or email me directly at bops@urcomputeringpal.com! Happy boppin’