Now playing list/Queue Feature

[Dance3942]

[New Post now merged into existing thread --- Admin]

I just downloaded the app recently, due to Google Music Player being removed. I've got to say I'm really impressed with the quality, user interface and incredible amount of personalization and feature fine-tuning that this app has. I was glad to pay for it after the first hour of using the free trial. However..... I've got to say I think it has two GLARING shortcomings. Ones that should, and hopefully will be addressed at some point in the near future.  

Issue 1. The app doesn't let you view the upcoming songs when you shuffle in any playlist, or in All Songs. Most music players, on the main player UI will have what looks like a little hamburger (or list, like 3 little lines) next to a small play button, and hitting that gives you an overview of the randomly generated queue. You're able to see what's coming up, and quick adjust the queue accordingly. I think that there needs to either be such a button, or we should be able to side swipe left, and see a queue. Preferably the latter, as it would be much more seamless. Right swipe should still bring you to the screen it does.

 

Issue 2. I briefly mentioned this one in my last point, which is the ability to quickly adjust a queue.  I think we should be able to, once in the aforementioned "queue overview", be able to swipe sideways to quickly remove songs from the upcoming playlist... instead of having to select each individual song we don't want to hear. Both of these were features available in the Google Music Player, and I think they are CRUCIAL features of a good music player. I have crappy ones still downloaded because I can't let go of those two features. It's great for when you're with friends and quickly want to remove some upcoming songs but don't want to spend a bunch of time curating.

 

Thank you for hearing my pleas! Hopefully the right person sees this 🤞🤞

[andrewilley]

1. There are two ways to do this. In any regular categories - i.e. ones that have can have their own varying sort views, such as All Songs - you can use menu > List Options and select 'By Shuffle Order' as the viewing order.  However as Playlists and the Queue have a defined playback order that you can't opt to view in a different way, you need to re-sort the whole list using menu > Re-sort > Shuffle before starting playback.

There has been some discussion recently asking for an option to view the recently played songs in the current session, and also see upcoming planned songs, in some consistent flat-list way that works across whatever category or playback/shuffle method you are using. You might want to have a look at one of those threads and add your voice to them? Search 'history', or try: 

 

 

2. Side swiping on any category list is a navigation feature for the whole page - e.g. for moving back up through folder layers. Having it perform a different task while you are viewing a Playlist or the Queue (which are the only user-editable list types) might be a bit counter-intuitive? That said, personally I see no reason why left-swipe and right-swipe need to perform the same function; in fact, I always use the Back button, or the labelled navigation link at the top-left of each list, to move up a layer and have never used the left or right swipe features at all. Perhaps having four methods to do the same thing could be just a bit overkill, which maybe Max could look into?

On the other hand, given that deleting a song requires a confirmation prompt anyway (you can choose to just remove an item from the list, or to physically delete the file too) I'm not sure quite how much time and effort you'd really save by having a side-swipe > Confirm process as opposed to the current long-press > Delete > Confirm sequence. Remember that the current process also supports multi-selection and other action choices, which side-swipes would not.

Andre

[6b6561]

In regard to #2, the "Tinder" swiping might make sense in the requested "played / now playing / planned" list, tap-hold-swipe to drop the stuff from the planned list. This would only affect the "planned" list, not the actual files.

[John Titor]

1 hour ago, 6b6561 said:

In regard to #2, the "Tinder" swiping might make sense in the requested "played / now playing / planned" list, tap-hold-swipe to drop the stuff from the planned list. This would only affect the "planned" list, not the actual files.

Yup. Seen this in YouTube music and definitely want this in PA if a now playing screen were to be implemented in Poweramp

[maxmp]

As for #1, Poweramp doesn't have the "now playing" list as it plays the target category and there are no intermediate lists. Thus, if you're playing folders, Poweramp plays the current folder, then changes folder (to whatever the next folder is according to the sorting, shuffle, etc.) and plays it. The folder, album, artist, etc. categories played in the same way.

Moving from the current track to the current category (cover press or swipe down) shows the current category, but you can't immediately see the next/prev categories (that requires extra swipe left/right or back action).

The Queue list is there for the plain now playing list adopters.

While it's possible to show some virtual plain list, this will always match All Songs list (except Streams), but with some weird sorting (which depends on parent category sorting). Also, this removes ability to navigate to parent category based on the current track. If you see this approach as usable one, we can get further into it and try to implement it in the next builds.

 

[andrewilley]

11 hours ago, maxmp said:

While it's possible to show some virtual plain list [...]

Yes, that is pretty much what the other recent threads asked for - a simple flattened list showing the entire current playback session from start to eventual finish, in whatever order and assorted categories that may encompass.

It could be formatted exactly like the 'All Songs' list, with the currently playing song highlighted in the middle of screen. Previously played songs would be seen by scrolling up, and forthcoming songs would be shown further down the list - continuing on to show the planned songs that are contained within the next folder/album/etc, then the next, and so on until the end of the library. In any of the Shuffled modes, the list would display the entire planned shuffle sequence (and history) for the current session.

This new 'Now Playing' display would be a special isolated list of its own, completely separate from the normal Category view (which would still be reached as normal by tapping on the album art). I seem to recall from the other threads that the suggestion was to access this new display by tapping on the central Track Number area in the middle of the control icons row, as that indicator seems to perfectly fit with the logical purpose of the new list:

Swiping up on the album art area was another suggestion for accessing the Now Playing list. The Back button would return directly to the Player screen afterwards.

It would be nice if such a list was tapable too, to skip playback forward or backward to a new song position but still within the currently planned order. This would not change the playback mode or the list contents, just the current position within it.

Some people also asked for editability of this sort of list, such as moving or removing songs, but I don't think that's a reasonable expectation as that is not how Poweramp's 'sorted categories' playback system works. That sort of functionality is already amply served via user-curated Playlists, or the Queue.

Andre

[GeilerHeinz]

@andrewilley Thanks Andre for your accurate summary of the recently requested history/now playing feature.

One thing I don't agree with is your point about the possibility to edit the list. If we'll be able to see the forthcoming songs, why not give the user the chance to remove any song just from that list or to change the order? In my opinion this wouldn't be opposed to PA's very comfortable 'sorted categories' playback concept but rather enhance it. 

Regards 

[PChwdhry]

👍

[andrewilley]

@GeilerHeinz Editing the playback order would actually be directly opposed to the 'sorted categories' playback concept. As soon as any such view was edited, Poweramp would no longer be playing in the sequence pre-defined by the current Category's List Options and its song list List Options - e.g. playing an Artist's Albums sorted by Year, with each album's tracks sorted by Disc#/Track#. Once you have made any edits (small or large) the sequential running order that was originally specifically defined by the Category chosen will have been broken, and PA will now be playing in some newly defined order.

The only exception to the above would be when your are listening in Shuffle All Songs mode, in which case I assume moving songs around in the list would probably be feasible without breaking any List Options ordering.

You can of course already accomplish manual editing of song ordering quite easily via the Queue or a Playlist, both of which can be edited to your heart's content as they are just a stand-alone sequence of songs with no defined concept of folders, artist, albums, track numbers, etc. That's why Playlist/Queue have no List Options sorting, they are manually set up and physically re-sorted by the user.

Andre

[GeilerHeinz]

7 hours ago, andrewilley said:

The only exception to the above would be when your are listening in Shuffle All Songs mode, in which case I assume moving songs around in the list would probably be feasible without breaking any List Options ordering.

Indeed shuffled playback of all genre/album artist songs would be my primary use case where the option to remove/move certain songs would definitely add additional benefit. 

Regards 

[6b6561]

@maxmp it's for shuffle play that the "played / now playing / planned" list is useful. Tie it to the track counter bellow the album cover, clicking the xx/xx would bring up the virtual list and it would allow you to scroll back a bit in history or scroll forward and select the position where you want to play from. So no changes to the current action taken when clicking the album cover, this would be a new action triggered by hitting the track counter."

"Pseudo" code:

User hits the track counter hit -> show virtual "played / now playing / planned" list

Allowed actions:

    Scroll up/down
    Select playback point in the list
    Return to player
    (If possible the possibility to swipe away tracks from the list)

[andrewilley]

@6b6561 I think your use of the term "virtual list" hits the nail on the head. This "Now Playing" concept would merely display the fully extended sequence of songs, in the same order as if you sat there repeatedly pressing the >> or << buttons. The extra ability to change the current playback position within the list by tapping on a different song does sound like a good idea.

Moving songs around or removing them is really beyond the remit of a simple virtual display concept, as that would immediately break the Category>List Options sorting system. Doing so would presumably require a lot more work from Max as it would turn normal Category-based listening into one huge editable playlist encompassing the whole library. And anyway, that is already possible by creating a Playlist or enqueuing everything from the All Songs list and then the user can fiddle around with it to their heart's content.
 

1 hour ago, 6b6561 said:

(If possible the possibility to swipe away tracks from the list)

I was vaguely wondering if that might be possible without too much extra work for Max by merely greying-out such tracks in the list? PA would then simply skip past such 'hidden' songs whenever it got to them in the assigned playback sequence. The track details would remain visible in the correct place in the list - so as not to break Category/List Options sorting - but they just wouldn't get played during the current session. Just an idea anyway, maybe for a future addition?

Andre

[andrewilley]

One other trivial thing - as this proposed virtual 'Now Playing' list would necessarily be very long, perhaps it might be worth inserting little divider lines whenever the Category changes? So each new Album, Folder, Genre, Year, etc would have a small subheading spacer as you scroll down the list?

Obviously would not be needed in Shuffle All Songs mode or Recently Played/etc, but it would be nice everywhere else and would nicely delineate the list.

Andre

[Lorelock]

Several months, years later, and PA still has not implemented this feature.

[andrewilley]

There has been some more discussion of this request recently. I've just merged that new thread into here, as they are basically the same request.

Andre

[maxmp]

@Lorelock the development “queue” is not empty - there are few previously requested features in the works. Small tweaks often can be pushed quickly, but the virtual now playing list is a bigger one - still I’m considering implementing it short term. Thanks!

[andrewilley]

22 hours ago, Lorelock said:

Several months, years later, and PA still has not implemented this feature.

As Max has said, it's on the list - hopefully maybe even fairly short term. If you check the changelogs, there have been literally hundreds of updates, bug fixes, and new features added over the past few years. Unfortunately the particular one that you happen to be following hasn't made it there yet. Don't feel too bad though, even I have a few old feature requests from the mists of time too.

For a one-person developer, Max has to prioritise what he works on based on the real level of demand (which isn't necessarily the same as people "+1"-ing a thread, which happens quite a bit), usefulness for all users, and practical considerations such as the time involved and any other repercussions that will need working around. Recent major feature work has mostly focussed on the regularly requested internal and external Equaliser updates (next being Parametric EQ controls) and the new split-Artists mode, but there have been lots of other more minor tweaks too.

Andre

[T4g]

I know this is an old thread but just read through it and sounds like a really nice feature so +1 from me, for what it's worth.

[invaderzim]

On 5/1/2021 at 8:11 PM, maxmp said:

@Lorelock the development “queue” is not empty - there are few previously requested features in the works. Small tweaks often can be pushed quickly, but the virtual now playing list is a bigger one - still I’m considering implementing it short term. Thanks!

Bumping this thread...

[Gaba Joe]

+1 for this feature. It is sorely missing and really diminishes the overall experience, especially considering that all other players that I use, be it streaming or offline, have it.

[bibity]

Amazing that there are so many threads about this feature, I login after two years to see if there has been any changes, and it looks like there's been none.

At this point it would be faster to learn how to code and make my own app. Geez. Like, every music player does this.

[andrewilley]

This is something that's on the to-do list for adding at some point, but presumably it's not a very high priority as PA already has a very wide range of ways to organise, sort, and listen your music.

Andre

[andrewilley]

Just so it doesn't wander too far, the facility requested in this thread is for a simple way to view the entire current scheduled playback order (regardless of Category or Shuffle modes) in one long flattened list, scrollable forward and backward. It has nothing to do with the Queue in particular, in fact it wouldn't really needed for the Queue unless you have shuffled it.

Andre

[andrewilley]

Please can we keep 'Queue Only' requests to their own thread, that's not the subject of this one and it just muddles the conversation. 

 

Andre 

[qiang yang]

yes