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.

[Joan]

Hi there folks,

We're here to say that we've taken your feedback into account and you will now be able to disable Smart Shuffle from the app settings, as described in this now implemented idea! 

The steps are as follows:

1. Tap your profile picture at the top.
2. Tap Settings and privacy.
3. Select Playback.
4. Switch Enable all play modes off.

This is for Premium users only and is only available on mobile at the moment, but rest assured it will be coming to desktop in due time as well.

Cheers!

[Kayahler]

Hello,

I like using the smart shuffle on my "Liked Playlist" because I enjoy hearing things I did not realize I did not have saved.

The downside I have noticed while using this, despite having almost 3,000 songs liked, over MANY genres, whenever I turn the smart shuffle on it will always only play the few rap songs I have liked while only recommending more rap songs. Is there a way to improve on this where it will shuffle ALL my liked songs and recommend a variety of different ones, not just rap....? 

[MattSuda]

Good news!

There is a new setting in the Spotify desktop app for Premium users to disable Smart Shuffle. This setting was previously available only in the mobile app.

Turning this setting off will remove the Smart Shuffle option from play modes. Cycling through the Shuffle modes will no longer include Smart Shuffle, only regular Shuffle and Shuffle off.

If you don't see the new setting yet, make sure the desktop app is up to date.

To disable Smart Shuffle in the desktop app:

1: Click on your profile picture at the top right corner

2: Click on Settings

3: Scroll down to Playback

4: Turn off Include Smart Shuffle in play modes

More info about the Shuffle modes can be found in the support article:

Support Article: Shuffle Play

[Gobsmacked]

It doesn't take a genius to work out that this was a terrible terrible terrible idea to forcefully lock in as a feature as it did when it first came out. I realise its been now fixed and people have the option to disable it however the problem goes far deeper....it indicates that  there is someone in the spotify development team that is severely detached from the basic awareness of how people prefer to listen to music. And the presence of that person is obviously having further detrimental effects to issues we are all experiencing with spotify. They are obviously making nonsensical design and development choices that go against all rational thinking such as a back/ previous/ swipe left option that doesn't function as intended in queue mode thus forcing users to create a new playlist every time they want to check out a new song to see if they like it or not, the whole thing is a **bleep** mess. I've never encountered a more un-intuitive , un-userfriendly, absurd, nonsensical way of using a music app. It makes no **bleep** sense. I was scrolling forward through my queue  (because that's the only apparent direction ) and accidentally tapped on one of the songs and that was the end of it , i lost the chance to listen to a dozen of the songs I had qued up because there was no back button, there was no undo option. And I'm willing to bet that the same looney tune that enforced tbe smart shuffle is behind this bevause it's at tbe same level of crazy as that