Inside iOS 11: Apple Music's social sharing isn't just Ping reborn

Apple has added a new social sharing feature in Apple Music with iOS 11, allowing users to set up a public profile to share what they're listening to.

Editor's note: This examination was originally published in July of 2017, but has been revised and republished to reflect the release of iOS 11.

The new features in Apple Music mostly live in the "For You" recommendation area. Setup of the new feature is easy. A single button brings users to the signup page, where they need to pick a "nickname" to use the service.

Despite the service being for social sharing of playlists, user privacy is still an option. Users can select between sharing with anybody and everybody, or just limit who can see your choices to those you specifically allow the data to be shared with.

In typical Apple fashion, the new social sharing feature gives users granular control over what level of privacy they want to set — and we feel that's important. You don't have to share everything, if you don't want. If you think you've got a particularly shameful playlist, you can toggle it off.

After you find other Apple Music users that you want to share with, they and you can paw through playlists that they've elected to share. The feature will still share playlists containing your personal music that isn't on Apple Music — but it won't share the tracks that aren't available from Apple.

All in all, the sharing feature in Apple Music will take off as more users choose to share. Just a few days after launch, the system appears fairly well populated which speaks well about iOS 11 adoption numbers.

But, Ping worked well too, and wasn't accepted by users. The integration of easy sharing between Apple Music may be the "secret sauce" that makes Apple's second go-around at music-based social networking really work.