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.

[softball_iff]

Please let me permanently turn this off. It’s defaulted to “on” for several of my playlists no matter how often I turn it off. 

[stefan137]

I've cancelled. This is a bad feature and is clunky. I don't know why anyone would want to add suggestions to a playlist they have created themselves already, and if they did surely you can just have a separate option for that rather than forcing it in everyone?

It isn't the only thing that made me cancel, I am going absolutely crazy hearing the same three songs after a playlist ends (regardless of what device I listen on). The shuffle, and continuation of playing after a playlist has ended, algorithm is terrible, it always has been, but it's even worse now.

The sad thing is that Spotify is probably the best music app, it's a shame it's drove me away.

[arkanesky]

---

@stefan137 wrote:

I've cancelled. This is a bad feature and is clunky. I don't know why anyone would want to add suggestions to a playlist they have created themselves already, and if they did surely you can just have a separate option for that rather than forcing it in everyone?

Same. Canceled after being subscribed for 7-ish years. Thanks, Spotify! Hope whoever's been in charge of the product the last few years gets the whipping they deserve for being so maliciously incompetent.

[Shmrrr]

GET RID OF THIS FEATURE

its annoying the fact i have to turn it on and off just to get to the regular shuffle feature, i have not once ised smart shuffle which causes it to be a massive inconvenience waiting for it to load and unload all the songs i wouldnt use anyways. I get it your trying to release new features to make the platform as interesting as possible but you can simply make a disable option in the settings, youve done it for canvas’ why cant you do it for this shitty smart shuffle option

[GryffinTG]

Please take this away. At least add a toggle in settings. This is honestly the worst thing to happen to the app. Before if I wanted to go from shuffle to not shuffle I just clicked the button. Now I click it and have to wait for smart shuffle to load (which can take a long time if I don't have great internet) and then I click it again and have to wait for it to undo everything it just did. This is infuriating and can take over a minute. I literally hate this feature, I never wanted something like this, I will never use something like this. All it brings me is pain and makes me want to stop using spotify.

[Plazmex8]

Now it takes me more than 30 seconds to turn off shuffle, because it keeps spinning when I DON'T EVEN WANT SMART SHUFFLE, but I'm forced to go through it! What's worse, when you finally turn off shuffle it just DELETES all your playing queue!!!!! If you really care about your users, please bring back the old separate “enhance playlist” button, that will add suggested songs into playlist without messing with the plying queue and without wasting our time. 

[Rich_2014]

Smart Shuffle is a great idea in theory but it should be based only songs I've liked; not songs I play (however frequently that may be).

For context, we play the kids' songs in the car and at bedtime so technically they get the most "play time" but that doesn't mean that's what I want shuffled in my Smart Shuffle.

And I'm not sure if Smart Shuffle was meant to be a replacement to Enhance playlist, but if that was the intent, I agree with others that it definitely isn't a replacement to Enhance.

[LemonfaceBeats]

Please introduce a global setting on an account level where smart shuffle can be turned off completely. I’m perfectly able of curating my own playlists thank you very much, and the amount of timesI have accidentally turned on smart shuffle is getting on my nerves. Enhance was waaay better anyway. Thanks. 

[madeldut]

I really have had no desire to use this feature, and it wouldn’t be an issue to avoid it except every single time I want to go from having shuffle on to shuffle off, I have to deal with smart shuffle. And it completely glitches— the one tap switches play mode from shuffle to smart shuffle, but then no matter how many times I tap the icon, it really only switches to shuffle off if I exit the app and reopen. This is really, really annoying. I would like an option to disable smart shuffle altogether because it just wastes my time. 

[termina666]

This feature sucks, half the time it just spins and I have to wait for it to time out. Please let us disable this "feature" or I'll be looking for a different service.

[Maxipad5000]

Dear spotify we have been bitching about it long enough, just give us a setting to toggle smart shuffle on/off permanently. How much longer until you do something about it?

[TrapMuzik]

Please remove this feature ASAP! Having to wait for the feature to be disabled and very annoying. 

[mrkants]

Please allow this feature to be disabled permanently?

It's way too easy to accidentally switch this stupidity on and I don't want random recommendations popping up when listening to my playlists.  This caused confusion at a friend's wedding due to unexpected/irrelevant songs appearing at a special moment during the reception.

Thanks guys 👍

[calamariinkantation]

this sucks so bad let me disable it

[ParkerBee]

Please allow users to disable this feature in settings. It’s ridiculous that it has been shoe-horned into the shuffle button, and on top of that it freezes the button. Terrible implementation.

[Phatriik]

That's it. That's the whole idea. Get rid of that feature.

[reikazu23]

Over 700 comments and this feature still shoved to my face and no way to turn it off. Dear spotify, please at least allow us to turn it off from settings if you still think this trash of a feature have to stay. It's annoying to go to setting and go offline every time I want to switch from shuffle to list

[monsoonbeast]

Please remove this feature. Terrible user experience and takes 10-15 seconds to load it, and no option to skip Smart Shuffle when clicking the shuffle button. Messes up the entire ordering of my playlists, eats my data usage, and has made using Spotify a less enjoyable experience.

[martin150]

I  can use the smart shuffle only on my own playlists.
I can't use it on playlists created by others but shared with me.
Is there a way to do so?
Thank you!

[noxere]

so at what point does spotify actually start caring? 1000 complaints? almost at 800 now, should get there soon. sadly I doubt it'll change anything.