Alright, let's be honest about where we're at with Cider 4.
I've been a Cider user for a while now. I genuinely like what this team has built — it's one of the few Apple Music clients that actually feels like someone cared about the experience. So this isn't a hit piece. This is a fan talking.
The Cider 4 feature list looks great. MKLite audio engine, Dolby Atmos, a fully rebuilt queue, dropping MusicKit.js — this is exactly the kind of ambitious update that makes you think "okay, these people actually know what they're doing." I read the changelog. I got excited. That was back in March.
It's now June 2026.
The X account is still active. Screenshots still look polished. Dev updates still sound positive. And yet — no release date. Not a beta. Not a quarter estimate. Just a steady stream of "we're really happy with where things are." Back in February they said release planning was "soon approaching." I'm still approaching it too, apparently.
Look — I get it. This is a small team doing a massive rewrite. Nobody wants a broken launch. But there's a difference between "taking the time to do it right" and "going dark on timelines while keeping the hype alive." One builds trust. The other slowly drains it.
I'm not angry. I'm just tired. Every post reminds me of a product I want to use but can't. At some point, that enthusiasm you've built up in the community starts converting into indifference — and that's a much harder thing to recover from than a delayed release.
Drop a beta. Set a rough window. Acknowledge that the wait has been long. That's all it takes.
Still a fan. Still waiting. Just... less excitedly than before.