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

🌟 I would like to disable Smart Shuffle permanently. Can I do that?

Yes, you can! Just go to Settings and privacy and then to Playback and toggle the option Enable all play modes to off. This will mean you will only have the regular shuffle. 

Note: This option is for Premium users only.

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.

[mbrianp]

I know I'm in the minority here but, I like the smart shuffle feature. I'm new to Spotify (coming from another streaming service) and I prefer it to a randomly generated playlist made by Spotify. It seems like they could make a way to disable the feature though. That seems like a better compromise than keeping it as is or removing it altogether.

One thing I don't understand about smart shuffle though: Why is it when I hide a suggested song, all other suggested songs disappear from the queue? Samsung Note 20

[Locotelli]

Tried it. Dont like it (so far).

it keeps suggesting the same songs. Enhance worked better somehow. Also i really miss the playlist radio option.

I used to be able to find a lot more similar songs, faster and easier. Now i feel like i keep getting the same ones and have no other way of doing it either... its only the "Smart Shuffle" option.. with the same suggestions xD....

hope it will improve.

On my free account i still have these features btw.. So i thought there was something wrong with my prem account lol.

[Jkozak]

Love the idea! Completely unusable tho! I have a massive likes playlist from using Spotify over the course of several years. I love getting new music recommended to me but I CANT STAND when I’ll be listening and the next song will be smooth jazz or something completely off key. If I wanted to listen to jazz I would just listen to jazz. Listening to rock and rap and other genres together blends well but it stinks when I go from Drake or future to some super slow jazz song that I’ve never heard before. Won’t be using this feature. Going forward I’d love to see a filter setting that would let me physically select which genres I want to be recommended to me!

[Snikkl3]

Can Spotify let us know if enhance will be coming back, I want to if I need to cancel my sub and move to YouTube music. Enhance was amazing for my play lists. 

[alpha6895997]

Why can't I completely disable smart shuffle? Every time I want to unshuffle my playlist, I need to wait 10 seconds for Spotify's algorithm to recommend me music I don't want to see.

[Sikho]

Please add an option to disable this terrible feature. 

For people who often toggle Shuffle, it's a nightmare. 

[Xforce80]

I have been having an issue when playing my playlists. My selection will 

[jessemullaly]

i hate smart shuffle 😕
please make it so i can turn if off indefinitely 

i HATE having to wait for smart shuffle to load before i turn on/off regular shuffle

it’s a pain in the ass 😞

[crawfordlance]

I hate Smart Shuffle. I've been a paying member since 2016. Please provide a disable function for the not so smart shuffle. Thanks in advance.

[jaybird_flys]

Is there any way to disable smart shuffle? I cant switch between shuffle and regular playing without going through smart shuffle, and when i turn smart shuffle off, it skips the song I’m currently playing! It’s really annoying, it’s a solid concept but it doesnt work correctly, and I’d rather have the option to toggle it rather than Click through it

[asgerae]

Smart shuffle is an abhorrent abomination that ambulates like an ambivalent asinine blockhead. It's existence must be revoked. 

[alecmi96]

I seem to have the opposite issue here - I can't activate smart shuffle. I still have the "enhance" feature and I'm stuck between regular play and shuffle mode. I've updated Spotify via my MacBook Pro, and uninstalled/reinstalled it via iPhone, but no updates. I've been a premium user for years, however, it seems that my account has not been selected to participate in the rollout of Smart Shuffle. I want the new tech!

[sirdorius]

The UX for this was much better when it was called enhanced playlists. Both for normal shuffle and for added suggestions. No idea why this regression was thought to be better.

[Julz05]

Did you ever get an answer? I want my regular shuffle back!! 

[hbh420]

There should be a hard setting that we can disable and enable the Smart Shuffle. 

If I want to listen to an album and turn off shuffle, the smart Shuffle causes the entire setlist to shuffle. And purhaps some claims that the playlist isn't altered is true, it has not been for me. Everytime Smart Shuffle turns on, the whole playlist has been reshuffled.

[marsg]

Can you please stop this annoying'feature' from auto enabling.  Cursed thing! 

[Spookydaddy]

gives me the same 10 songs on smart shuffle im really not impressed i wanted it to be good so i had another way to find new interesting music but instead just adds the same few songs to the queue. boring

[pSychOKC1]

BIG DISLIKE 😠😠

Smart Shuffle is the stuppiest thing after podcasts on the start page.

After i updatet the app last night, the ADDED feature is no longer there, now i have smart shuffle. i dont want to play my list in an order that spotify thing is ok. i want to hear my List from top to end with added songs.

Sry for my english, i dont find a german help site

[theedreaming]

""smart""" shuffle....... truly the worst feature yet in a long line of updates that have sucked. insert ron swanson 'i know more than you' gif, i do not need some annoying white girl in marketing to keep assuring me that phoebe bridgers is good. she isn't.

[Tylerk3]

I love Spotify but for the love of god please let us turn off smart shuffle permanently in settings. It is by far the most annoying feature that has ever been added. Thank you