Introducing Smart Shuffle!

[Joan]

Introducing Smart Shuffle! 

We know that our users love creating their own playlists to capture key moments in time – in fact, playlists created by users often become their most-streamed playlist for the first several months but listening to these playlists slowly fades overtime, and users are eager to discover new music.

With this in mind, we’re excited to launch a new play mode called Smart Shuffle that keeps listening sessions fresh and provides personalized recommendations that perfectly match any listeners’ playlist vibe. 

This update will roll out to Premium users on mobile devices starting today.

How does Smart Shuffle work?

• You can use it in any playlist created by you, and your Liked Songs.
• To activate it, just use the Shuffle button to switch between regular play, Shuffle mode and Smart Shuffle.
• When Smart Shuffle is on, recommendations are added to your session automatically. You can find all the recommendations sitting in your queue.
• You will be able to recognize the music we are recommending with the sparkle (✨) symbol next to the track. For a playlist with more than 15 songs, we’ll recommend one song for every three tracks.
• And the best part, your original playlist remains untouched, so you can add any new track that catches your ear.
• If you like a specific recommendation, just save it using the plus button in the Now Playing View. If that song doesn’t hit right, just tap the minus to remove it from the recommendations. This is then used to better adjust the suggestions we put forward.
• Every time you turn Smart Shuffle off, a new mix will be available every time you activate it again.

Introductory pageHow the queue will look

Adding and removing recommendations.

Different playback options.

FAQ

What about the Enhance feature?

For now, Smart Shuffle will replace the Enhance feature.

What will happen to Discover Weekly and other regularly updated playlists?

For the time being, no changes to those will be made. Smart Shuffle aims to improve the listening experience for user curated playlists.

Does this mean that using Smart Shuffle will cause my carefully curated playlists to get cluttered with new recommendations?

No! Your original playlist remains untouched, so you can add any new track that catches your ear. Smart Shuffle won’t change your playlist without your explicit permission. What changes instead is what you'll hear during each specific listening session

We hope you're as excited as we are about this new play mode. The official Newsroom announcement is out, you can check that out too. For any and all feedback on the matter you may have, you're more than welcome to comment in the thread below.

[ArinBlackheart]

Another note: the feature is so broken that the songs aren't removed from the queue when you go back to normal shuffle. 

[Gooses243]

Obviously Spotify doesn’t care what the users want, this thread has been going on for over a year and the feature is still there ruining playlists.  Sometimes I want to reshuffle a playlist but I have to toggle through grey, shuffle, then smart shuffle which takes a couple seconds at times bc it’s adding stupid songs I don’t want.  I read through a lot of these and they seemed to have stopped responding, as long as they’re getting money they don’t care.  So I feel I shall cancel and follow suit as others did and head for Apple Music.  Smart shuffle is the dumbest feature ever added without a way to just turn it off permanently.  I suggest everyone send a message and switch do I different service for music.  

[laurenplumb]

I completely agree, it’s so infuriating. Especially in the morning when i’m trying to put music on for my car journey and i accidentally shuffle and it takes me back to the original page and resets my whole app. I don’t know if mine is major glitching but it really makes me want to try out different listening services. If i wanted music suggestions I would’ve listened to my daily mixes not having suggestions with the songs i listen to every day. 

[rickshinova]

this is the most annoying feature you have introduced so far. delete it or add an option to exclude it from the ui!!!

or bye

[laelito]

I can’t for the life of me figure out how or why smart shuffle is better than the previous “enhance” button. It’s much harder to use, it hides its recommendations, and it breaks the dang shuffle button.

The previous shuffle button was either on or off, shuffling or not shuffling. By adding smart shuffle as a new, third mode to the shuffle button, the button becomes overly complicated and prone to misuse or accidental input.

With the previous “enhance” button, users had a single button that made it very easy to see whether or not the enhance feature was active. When enhance was turned on, it was very clear which songs in your playlist were your selections, and which ones were the new enhance recommendations. Press the enhance button, see the results change. Press it again, the feature turns off, the enhanced songs disappear. Clear. Simple. Elegant.

Smart shuffle is nowhere near as straight-forward or intuitive. First of all, the button hides itself INSIDE the shuffle button. If you are lucky enough to remember, find, and activate the feature, the next absolutely baffling and counterintuitive thing that smart shuffle does is to NOT show you its recommendations. The enhance button immediately updated your playlist. With smart shuffle the recommended songs get buried in your queue, which is multiple taps away, and far more inflexible and difficult to use than the standard playlist view.

So, to recap, enhance was a feature which ALREADY EXISTED AND WORKED GREAT. It’s been replaced with smart shuffle, which is less useful or functional, and yet somehow also more complicated and difficult to use.

I mean, I just don’t even understand what’s happening here. I feel like future design classes could use this as a powerful case study in how NOT to design and implement a feature.

Anyways, please bring back the enhance button and the old shuffle button. I loved using that enhance button and seeing my playlist magically update before my eyes. And I sure never had any confusion or trouble when using the shuffle button before. Smart shuffle is a big step backward.

[regulusignicapilla]

I mostly create playlists for specific purposes. I get new music recommendations mostly from friends, as I’m not one for trying new things without being in the complete mood for it. As such, I resent the new Smart Shuffle feature. My playlists for specific purposes are flooded with recommendations for the same five to ten songs that have been relentlessly recommended to me in the past that I am not interested in. When going to shuffle a longer playlist to get a good queue, I have to wait for Smart Shuffle to load, wait for it to reload when turning it off, then hit regular shuffle. When dealing with bad service, you can see how this is easily frustrating.

I am not alone in my feelings about Smart Shuffle, and I hope Spotify can see that, and listen to it. They are actively making their application hostile to its users, specifically the ones who pay for their services. Surely, Spotify, you see the problem here? Please allow us to completely disable Smart Shuffle if we want to.

[TheSp3ctr3]

I really hate this smart shuffle thing. When I want to reshuffle my playlist, I have to press the shuffle button which then turns on smart shuffle first and that breaks my Spotify... The addition of the songs takes a few seconds (my playlist has over 2000 songs so it's probably around 1000 songs that have to be added) and after that's done, it either skips to the next track right away or the audio breaks and I have to restart Spotify just to see the song that just played being skipped... PLEASE, I beg you, give us the option to turn that feature off, or remove it entirely cause so far I haven't seen anyone use/enjoy it

[Stopfixing]

The newest version plays music automatically from recommended playlists when I open the app and scroll down. This is horrible and disruptive. I only want to listen to the music I want to listen to, when I want to listen to it. The app is unnavigable this way. Please fix it!

[Flameseeker]

I preferred having the enhance button. I liked how easy it was to add the songs to the current playlist. And then upon adding it'd suggest a couple more. It was easy to see all suggestions and curate a playlist. Now I need to tune the feature on, go to the player, dive into the queue, and then just start skipping songs to get to the suggestions. 

There is now also no easy way to add these suggestions to the current playlist. The plus button on the example ui isn't there for me. There's the minus and the heart button, which adds it to the liked songs playlist. Not very useful. Only way to add the currently playing song to the current playlist is to use the three dot menu, just like normal. That's more convoluted than before.

Honestly guys, not a fan. I fail to see how this is in any way better. Just seems like change for the sake of change. 

Edit: as others have mentioned, the fact this is now part of the shuffle button and it lags is TERRIBLE ux. Rather than being able to quickly turn shuffle on/off I now need to cycle through another option which takes a bit to load. Enhance at least had its own separate button. 

[LXT]

Please remove the shuffle/ recommendation linkage. I only want to shuffle the songs I selected, not the one’s Spotify adds. Make a separate toggle to turn “Add recommendations” on and off.

Thanks.

[Raibuookami]

Bring back Enhance, it was a far superior feature to this "Smart" Shuffle. You can keep Smart Shuffle if you want, but Enhance needs to come back.

You just removed one of the best features of your app to substitute it with something completely different...if you want to add new features then fine, but don't go removing old, well-loved features to do so.

[Stalker011]

Please remove smart shuffle 

[user-removed]

Please please please listen to the community and remove the feature, everyone is responding negatively to it- many people, including me, like to shuffle playlists multiple times until they like the lineup and this feature makes that incredibly difficult and frustrating- it’s one thing to change the appearance of the Home Screen, that isn’t an essential to the way the platform functions, but when you change something at simple and important as how the shuffle button functions, you’re bound to receive backlash- not trying to be mean, but I’m just trying to speak for the user community here. Please remove this feature and please stop changing core functions of the platform, it would make everything easier for everyone 🙏🫶

[Gareth80]

Why is it that daily mixes shuffle, even when shuffle is turned off? This is so infuriating. On top of that, songs in the same mix are constantly being removed and replaced by other songs. Calling it a daily mix makes it sound as though the mix will change once a day, not on a minute by minute basis.

[kirikechi]

Hi! The Enhance button was much better. You have the ability to view the added songs in order and add them or remove them ahead of time if it fits the energy of the playlist, plus doi g so instantly adds more related recommendations. Plus the option of listening to the playlist in order with additions or entirely shuffled with additions!! Please bring back Enhance!!!!

[deborahajackson]

anyone know how to get plain old "Shuffle" back - I like my Playlist - the reason that I like Spotify - I do not want to listen to suggestions i.e. "Smart Shuffle" - how can I get it back - options now are Smart Shuffle or OFF - arghhhhh

[KandD08]

I pay for Premium so I can listen to the music I have saved. And now I have to jump through hoops just to do that. Its annoying, especially considering the app works like garbage and takes an entire minute to disable Smart Shuffle everytime I open a playlist. Why would you EVER think this was a good idea without the option to disable the feature entirely!? Seriously done with this increasingly-frustrating "music" service. 

[boxers12345]

one of my playlists won't disable smart shuffle anymore.. been trying all day... Every time i press the icon i get a prompt saying "you discovered a premium feature."  thinking about canceling and going to youtube music

[LEMONFRESH]

HOW ABOUT TAKE ME OFF YOUR STUPID EXPERIMENT LIST! YOUR IDEAS SUCK! GIVE ME MY HOME SCREEN BACK!!!!

[LEMONFRESH]

Whoever thought of this needs to be fired just like the last idea! Your creative team needs to be let go immediately and whoever approved this change..🤦🏾‍♂️ just TERRIBLE!!!