[Mobile] [Other] Smart Shuffle toggle setting in settings menu

[LiamTems]

Smart shuffle is a fun way to discover new songs, but it comes at a cost. Want to reshuffle your queue? Bam, wait a few seconds longer. Want to unshuffle your playlist? Bam, no longer works, and goes to a completely random place in the playlist.

To me this is an unwanted complication, and I'd much rather be able to choose in the settings menu whether I want to enable the Smart Shuffle feature, or disable it.

[Koelkaststekker]

It shouldn't even shuffle.

The shuffle button should shuffle, the "enhance" button (or whatever they want to call it, smart it is not), should only add songs, NOT also shuffle.

And of course there is no reason for it to be the same button.

[Kuulintu]

We're not in the concentration camp here, we're trying to listen to music WE HAVE ADDED to our playlist!. What the f**k is wrong with the world today when you cannot make any kind of DECISIONS!? Everything is forced nowadays: Updates, visual changes, features. YOU CAN'T F***ING TURN OFF ANYTHING ANYMORE!? Makes me so mad that my head is going to explode!

[Jendon]

@Hylianpoppunk Hi friend - first of all, love the name! Second, I remember reading that Spotify did a study years ago where they attempted an honest random shuffle and tested it. In the study, they found that users didn't prefer it as much as an algorithm-driven shuffle. The reason (if I'm recalling correctly) was that they found people didn't want *actual* randomness, they just wanted the *perception* of randomness, if that makes sense.

For example, with a true shuffle, back-to-back songs of the same artist were much more likely to occur because, well, it was truly random. If they had their algorithm shift the shuffle slightly to avoid any perceived non-randomness, the testers felt like it was random enough, I guess.

I would very much love it if Spotify gave users some kind of a shuffle randomness slider of sorts. All the way on one end is your desired true shuffle, only defined by a random number generator, with no algorithms at all. Other end of the slider is a fully algorithm'd shuffle, with degrees thereof in between the two ends. That way, users who want a true shuffle (and I'm certain there is a considerable population of these folks) can have it, and others can play with the slider as needed.

[Jendon]

Having a toggle to turn this off permanently is a no-brainer. I understand the feature, and I think it's pretty interesting, in concept anyway. However, shuffling a playlist that I've curated is not the time I want to discover new music. I go to my discovery playlists, song radios, etc. when I want to find new music via the algorithm.

There are many avenues for music discovery within Spotify, and I value and enjoy several of them. I've found hundreds of artists this way, and it's been a great tool for my own musical journey. However, when I put a playlist together myself and turn that playlist on, I'm not interested in hearing other, new music.

Spotify employees, whoever may be reading this, I want to take this opportunity to tell you: This is a great example of what it means to understand how people listen to music. There has never been, nor will there ever be a way for you to concisely say "Music listeners do X" or "Music listeners like to do X this way with Y." I honestly believe this is a fundamental building block of your product, because you've tried to build a reputation for being good for people who love music (not so much recently with podcasts and audiobooks, but we waive that point, we do not press it, we look over it), and this is a chance for you to choose integrity. Give users the tools you've created for music curation and discovery, but do not force them to use it any specific way.

And if you think that letting users turn it off after it's turned on automatically isn't forcing them to use it a certain way, then I humbly beseech you to learn basic UX and UI design principles, or hire someone who does. Over the years it's becoming painfully apparent that those three things are dying in Spotify's culture: 1) an understanding of how people engage with music, 2) good UI design, and 3) crafting a good UX.

Please, for the love of God, shun your shareholders, do what's right for your customers, and pay the artists more - not your CEO.

[CedLemay]

It's been a year since it has been suggested, and even approved as a good suggestion, and yet you haven't taken the time to put a simple option to disable it

[namiom]

yes please fix this

[Kuulintu]

When the new hidious desktop design was force-feeded us some time ago, i had to install older versions of Spotify for several computers, and hack the stupid forced updating off. I didn't get as old client as I would've liked, because Spotify broke every login before 2018 versions, but at least I got a decent one before the most horrible layout catastrophe, where they moved the album art to the right side. This also naturally removed the horrendous Smart Shuffle **bleep**.

Until this day, I've tolerated the mobile app and kept it up to date. But today my frustration boiled over, and I had to uninstall Spotify from my Android and revert to an older version from 2022. I just have to keep watch that I don't accidentally update it with other apps. Not only does the older version remove the apocalyptic Smart Shuffle**bleep**, but it's a whole lot lighter and faster too. I know that it won't be long before Spotify blocks using older mobile versions too, like they did with a desktop client. But when they do that, It's goodbye forever and I won't be coming back, ever again. I've been a paying customer from the year 2009, but now the limits of my patience have finally been reached. I'm not tolerating a single shitstorm from this company anymore. Next feather breakes the back of the camel.

[lasalebete]

shitass idea FROM THE START when we already had the enhance function. Yeah I know it's only to make more profit and force us to music  we don't want. Amazing (<- to perceive with increasing sarcasm and alarm). Companies stop getting more **bleep**ed up and hard to use challenge.

[lasalebete]

Above comment from Jendon could not have worded it better. Thank you.

[sj585]

I don't mind the smart shuffle.  What I do mind is that on startup, my "NON" smart shuffle setting on playlist disappears and ALWAYS defaults back to smart shuffle.  The only way to disable the smart shuffle is to completely reload my playlist, wait for the shuffle icon to pop up, then cycle back.  SO annoying.  I just want my setting to default BACK to the way it was before I shut off my laptop.