Only shuffle unplayed queue option?

Feature requests
1

This is a terrific app and I purchased a license. Heard about you on r/Androidapps. I’ve tried dozens, but stuck with Blackplayer. You’re I think the only app that gets better than that in UI, customization, and functionality for me (all my music is local, but I’ll have to try some of your syncing options).

One major function I use almost every time I play music is to reshuffle the unplayed tracks. Here’s an example of how it works in Blackplayer: https://i.imgur.com/VchtkJX.mp4

I listen to a few songs, look at the queue, don’t like whatever’s coming up next, hit shuffle, and it only shuffles whatever’s coming up next - it doesn’t reshuffle the entire queue and replay what I’ve already listened to. If I want to reshuffle the entire queue, I can hit shuffle on the ‘now playing’ screen.

There are a few small bugs in Blackplayer that are annoying. And it hasn’t been updated since April, 2021. So I’m looking for something new. And your app hits pretty much all of my marks (I also like that Blackplayer gives many icon styles and layouts for Now Playing).

I build huge playlists with hundreds of songs. This function lets me hear what I’m in the mood for quickly and easily.

What I do: hit shuffle on a playlist, move what I want to hear next up in the queue to before the now playing, hit shuffle again, move a few more songs up, do it once or twice again, then I have an unchanged queue of songs that I selected above with a random list below. So I make an on-the-fly queue out of a playlist. Then I just move the now playing to the top or just select the top of the queue and I can hear the songs I want in the order I want out of the playlist or artist I chose. It allows me to build a quick playlist out of a larger playlist.

If you implement this, it’d be perfect for me.

Thanks for all your hard work! Everything you’ve made so far is incredible!

2

Well this sounds like a very specific need :frowning:

While I’m not really against this, the UI currently already have a shuffle handling in the playlist (and required for the minimalist configuration).
Not sure there’s proper ways to explain this shuffle only next songs.

Have you tried the personal mix functions on your playlists maybe it automatically fit your playback needs and do not require this.

3

Thank you for responding.

In Symfonium, when I press shuffle in the queue, it takes the now playing to the top and shuffles every song. When I hit unshuffle it remembers the queue before.

I can move the song up and down in the queue when unshuffle is selected, but when I hit shuffle, it shuffles the entire playlist.

Let’s say I’m listening to an artist on shuffle while taking a walk. I already listened to a dozen songs. I see what’s coming up in the queue and I want a different mix. So I hit shuffle. But now, all of the songs I’ve already listened to are shuffled back in.

The function to remember the played queue is useful in that case, where I don’t want to hear songs I’ve already listened to, or in the case of quickly removing upcoming songs by moving them up in the queue past Now Playing so that if I hit shuffle, they won’t be played, or in my case of creating a quick playlist by hitting shuffle and moving songs up before ‘Now Playing’ so I have an unchanging queue and a changing queue when I press shuffle.

Thanks again for your time!

4

You can use the mix button as it does that it does not replay music you have just played.

So you are in an artist view press personal mix, if the rest of the queue does not look nice press personal mix again it won’t play the last songs you have just listened and start a new one.

5

Thank you. I just tried it out: Symfonium - Album on Imgur

Maybe I’m doing something wrong. It still just shuffles everything I’ve already listened to. Did you watch how it works in this video in Blackplayer: https://i.imgur.com/VchtkJX.mp4

What am I doing wrong here? Is there a way for it to function like in Blackplayer? Where it only shuffles or creates a new queue for music I haven’t played yet in the queue? Instead of reshuffling the entire queue?

Maybe it can be an optional setting for users? Do you think it’s better to replay everything when I hit shuffle?

6

I just explained that no it does not work like blackplayer and why it’s not that easy to add.

About the personal mixes, quickly pressing next does not make songs listened this does not count as played.
Played means you have listened the song to nearly the end.

7

It’s too bad that it’s too difficult to track played tracks. I didn’t realize it would be so hard to implement. Thanks anyway!

8

This is not difficult to track played it’s wanted, a user that skip a song does not want to have it counted as played since the more played songs are usually the more loved songs and this is used by some of the algorithm to build better automatic playlists.

9

Thank you so much for explaining. I must have misunderstood when you wrote, “it’s not that easy to add.” I really like the way Blackplayer approaches queues and UI and customization, but if functionality and personalization isn’t a priority, then I respect your choice to stay away away from it.

10

You mixes things here.

  1. Obviously if you look a little just on this forum features and personnalisation are the core of Symfonium.

  2. I’ve first explained why the features as done in BP causes UI/UX issues with how Symfonium works and gave you another path to achieve something similar.

  3. You said my proposal does not work properly, but I again tried to explain you what played state means.

TL;DR the proposed solution does work if you actually play the songs like from your feature requests and not by pressing skip to try to simulate things faster.

11

You wrote, “Personal mixes, quickly pressing next does not make songs listened this does not count as played. Played means you have listened the song to nearly the end.”

How is your implementation, in any way, better or more functional or useful than the very simple way that Blackplayer implements it? You’re throwing glitter and sprinkles in the name of “algorithm” and “personal mix” on top of something useless. It’s absolutely absurd that you say, “I’ll only remove a song from a queue if you listen to 100% of it”. Are you kidding?! You think that the only time someone would want to skip a song is by playing 100% of it? You’re approaching “Personal Mix” in a damned bizarre way. If I’m shuffling an artist and it’s a “Personal Mix,” why do I have to listen to nearly 100% of the song to remove it from the queue?! Obviously there are songs I wouldn’t be interested in listening to if I put an artist on shuffle. But you say I need to listen to the entire track to remove the song from the queue?!

Frankly, I paid for the license, but your app lacks too much functionality to be useful to me. Muscibee, iTunes, Blackplayer, others, all have much more advanced customization and functionality. I have absolutely no idea why you’re arguing with me about not being able to implement the shuffle function. I have uninstalled your app because Blackplayer, despite its bugs and not being updated in years, still does everything better than yours. I asked for what I thought was a very simple feature. I have no idea why it’s too difficult. It’s something I use constantly. Every music app I use has this functionality. Yours doesn’t. Fine. Whatever.

2: “Features as done in BP causes UI/UX issues with how Symfonium works”
Blackplayer and Symfonium both have a “Shuffle” button on the queue list. Your shuffle button is just much more functionally useless than Blackplayer. It’s an issue on your end. Just watch the videos of both side by side. Yours seems primitive.

It’s clear that you used some kind of music player template for your app. Maybe that’s why certain implementations are too difficult for you. It’s also awful that you use the Android Media Library instead of creating your own. That causes all kinds of issues in what I see in the artists list. This is a callow app. I have paid for licenses for many different apps. You may have a lot of potential, but I’m not sure if it comes from your template or from your knowledge. If it’s all from your template, then you’ll never really be able to add any significant functionality on top of it. Who knows. I don’t think the video and functionality I showed in Blackplayer is complex. You said it is. That makes me think that it’s an issue with your understanding of the template.

12

Thanks for the kind words and all the insults on things you can’t even apprehend.

I’m sorry that you do not understand what I write …

Shuffle toggle the shuffle state of the player as in 100% of the players in the world.
The shuffle button in the playlist toggle the state because the shuffle button on the normal screen can be missing in some configurations. It’s the same icon and is expected to do the same thing …
You want another button called shuffle too that would do something different that only BP does.

No need to be a genius to understand that 2 buttons named the same at the same place but doing different things is an UX problem for users. (I know you are very smart and everything, but let’s imagine the other users are not and you are just a genius)

BP have a shuffle button in the now playing screen that does something and a shuffle button in the queue thing that does something else. Sorry to disappoint but this is not how proper UX / UI works. Naming is wrong and does not respect how most apps works and users are accustomed to.

For the rest you clearly have no idea what you talking about and just throw random insults, I did not use any template and unlike you understand every single line of code in the app, the app support dozens of different media source and everything is explained about why local device uses Media Store. There’s an issue to built my own since Media Store is more broken than anticipated, but due to how the app works it have not been a priority.

And to finish if you had taken time to read more what I wrote you’d have understood the difference between Shuffle / Personal mix, what a playcount is and how the app works and what an algorithm is. You mixes terms and try to make unrelated things match what you think instead of trying to read and understand what I try to explain. (Not talking about being before the currently playing item is not being played at all, and your naming of things is wrong, hence your missunderstanding of everythin)

So good luck with your other apps, learn respect, learn reading and understand what other people try to say to you instead of assuming that you know better and don’t have to…

TL;DR: You do not read anything I write, I explained the UX issue, I told you that I’m not against the idea but it’s not that simple, and yet despite me trying to explain things and being nice you act like a asshole.
So please do not come back. (And thanks for the bad rating ;))

13

I did not give a bad rating. Like I said, I bought your license. That’s my own money. You just spent a lot of time explaining why it’s too difficult for you to implement what Blackplayer or Musicbee or iTunes can do with their queue.

I showed you your shuffle queue in comparison to Blackplayer. Do you honestly think your shuffle is more functional than that? It’s awful!

Why are you insulting me? Why are you arguing with someone who bought your license?

I tried to give you examples of why I think the played queue works and your response was a Personal Mix that nobody would ever use.

Why are you so against this functionality? It Seems like there’s something deep for you that makes you hate it? What’s going on? It seems like such a simple option? Why are you fighting so much against it? Why is it offensive to you? Or is it just too difficult to implement against your template?

14

Do you even read what I write or just assume that you are right and so just need to blindly repeat the same thing over and over?

You are insulting me and disrespecting me do not invert roles here.

For the record Personal mix is one of the most used feature of the application the fact that you do not understand it’s purpose does not make it useless, you are not the center of the universe.

For the last time since you clearly do not want to listen it will not change anything but let’s try again:

THIS IS NOT A COMPLEXITY PROBLEM THIS IS AN UX PROBLEM … IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT UX IS THEN USE GOOGLE?

I’m not fighting against anything, you are assaulting me, while I’m just trying to explain you why it’s currently not possible to just change the current shuffle button behavior or add a duplicate button doing something else.
If you do not understand what I write, maybe ask someone to explain?

For the record 10 years that I do media center apps with millions users and you are the first one to request this… (But unfortunately not the first one to act like you do …)

So calm down, learn respect then maybe come back. If you just going to keep assaulting me and repeating the same things over and over as said don’t come back.

And just in case you only read the last sentence:
THE SHUFFLE BUTTON IN THE QUEUE IS NOT A SHUFFLE BUTTON IT’S THE SHUFFLE STATE OF THE GLOBAL LIST AS IN THE NOW PLAYING SCREEN AND IN 99% OF THE OTHER APPLICATIONS.

The simple fact that you can’t understand that shuffle have multiple meanings and refuse anything I explain if the perfect confirmation of why THIS IS A MAJOR UX ISSUE THAT NEED THINKING …