[REQ] Play Next button [#19775]

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gordol
Posts: 279
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:16 pm

[REQ] Play Next button [#19775]

Post by gordol »

MMA 1 had several action buttons available when selecting one or more tracks including Play Now, Play Next, and Play Last. Other than Play Now, these are now all gone, instead hidden behind a menu.

Please bring them back.

The only one I ever use is "Play Next" to add them to the current playing list after the currently playing item. When using "Play Now", the currently playing item gets abandoned.
Peke
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Re: Req: Play Next button

Post by Peke »

Hi,
What do you think about long TAP action on PLAY NOW icon to OPEN MENU (Currently you need to use ⋮) and that last action selection become new default icon/action fro simple tap? Note: Long TAP would again show menu?
Best regards,
Peke
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rusty
Posts: 8396
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Req: Play Next button

Post by rusty »

Background: IIRC the reason for the change is that the different buttons (play now/play next/play last) take up too much space in the 'multi-select bar'.

That being said, I suspect that in most cases, if the queue is playing, the most common desired action would be Play Next rather than Play Now. This is already the approach taken in the Playing > Queue view, so maybe the simplest solution would be to take that approach always.

-Rusty

p.s. I'm not keen on the long-tap idea because most users don't realize when such functionality exists and it doesn't reduce the number of taps required.
gordol
Posts: 279
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:16 pm

Re: Req: Play Next button

Post by gordol »

Peke wrote: Sat Jan 28, 2023 6:36 pm Hi,
What do you think about long TAP action on PLAY NOW icon to OPEN MENU (Currently you need to use ⋮) and that last action selection become new default icon/action fro simple tap? Note: Long TAP would again show menu?
Sounds perfect to me. More intuitive than current, and less space taken than in 1.x.
rusty
Posts: 8396
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: Req: Play Next button

Post by rusty »

I'm not sure that it's an improvement.
- Most users will not realize that long-tap functionality exists
- Using a long-tap > Play X is the same number of Taps as the current UI, but takes longer
- Implementing this would result in no description re. what the current icon means (currently, long tap provides a description of what the icon means)
- As a consequence of the lack of discoverability with this approach, we'd have to duplicate the Play X functionality across the ellipsis and long tap.

So I agree that it should be faster to access Play Next--I'm just not sure of the best approach. Tracking at https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=19775 , but I'm open to ideas.

-Rusty
gordol
Posts: 279
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:16 pm

Re: Req: Play Next button

Post by gordol »

Make "Play Now" play the selected tracks now (as advertised) but instead of pushing the otherwise currently playing track into the past, push it forward to be played next?

Wording on the setting "'Play now' preserves the queue" seems to indicate that it should be doing that anyway: "Plays the track without clearing the Playing queue".
stonefree
Posts: 34
Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2022 7:05 am

Re: [REQ] Play Next button [#19775]

Post by stonefree »

I also miss those buttons, I wasn't keen though how in shuffle mode, play next would not actually play it next, it would just end up somewhere in the queue. I wish it just randomised the queue rather than randomly traversing the queue.

What about having one of those "startup tips" thing, you could mention things like the long press etc there?
gordol
Posts: 279
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:16 pm

Re: [REQ] Play Next button [#19775]

Post by gordol »

stonefree wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 1:05 pm I also miss those buttons, I wasn't keen though how in shuffle mode, play next would not actually play it next, it would just end up somewhere in the queue. I wish it just randomised the queue rather than randomly traversing the queue.e?
A trick the devs gave me quite some time ago when I was getting unexpected randoms when adding short playlists to the queue via "play next": Don't use "Shuffle Play" at all. Instead, start the playlist playback with the "Shuffle All" button at the top of the playlist. It will then randomize the playlist into the Now Playing queue which will then behave as expected with next/previous commands.
MissingOldMonkey

Re: [REQ] Play Next button [#19775]

Post by MissingOldMonkey »

Here's another vote for bringing the 'Play next/last' buttons back. The current 'Play now button' is virtually redundant with a short tap, except for submitting queues. For me personally, I'd use a 'play next/last' much more often for smoother transitions.

To the ones who are concerned about too many menu items: Please remember that these only appead upon long tap. Users who don't care about queue submission options would never even get to see them.

Thanks for fixing this!
SepticFuddy
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2022 7:10 pm

Re: [REQ] Play Next button [#19775]

Post by SepticFuddy »

I'm grateful to see the UI has gotten serious attention, but I am also in this camp. Mostly, I pick out albums to toss onto the end of the queue so that when the current queue is done, I don't have to distract myself from work or driving to select the next album. Or if I do, it's a minimal amount of distraction. The old version allowed me to long press, then tap the "Play last" icon. Now I have to long press, then hit the 3-dot menu, then "Play last", both of which are harder to reach than old icon was. It just turns what was a pretty simple task into a slightly more complicated one, which adds up with as much as I use it.

I'd be happy with any solution that is at least as streamlined as a long press and one tap, and doesn't require going to the corner to reach. Presumably, you'll want to accommodate multi-select too, though I personally don't really use it.

Thanks for listening
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