Playing tracks through Assistant

[ae01hd]

When I ask Assistant to play a track, it always seems to play it through the "Album" category with shuffle off. Can I change it so it's shuffled and played through the "All Songs" category?

[wotantx]

1 hour ago, ae01hd said:

When I ask Assistant to play a track, it always seems to play it through the "Album" category with shuffle off. Can I change it so it's shuffled and played through the "All Songs" category?

This sounds like the same behavior I've had with YT Music. It almost seems like an Assistant problem. 

[andrewilley]

Part of the issue is that Google Assistant doesn't simply forward on your accurate spoken words to the relevant app, it first uses its AI to try to interpret the content first. You can see what it decides to pass on to PA on-screen as soon as you issue the command, and in more detail in PA Settings > Headset/Bluetooth > Last Processed Commands. 

If Google also passes on an (unspoken) Artist name and/or an Album title, PA will try to use All Artist Songs mode or Artists>Albums mode.

You can switch to Shuffle All Songs by then saying "OK Google... Shuffle", but PA does not currently handle (for example) "Play ABBA shuffled" to trigger shuffled playback of one artist.

Andre 

[maxmp]

@andrewilley "OK Google shuffle Adele in Poweramp" is supported (in Auto, in Poweramp may be skipped if Poweramp is already active).

[andrewilley]

@maxmp I had already tried to trigger shuffle as part of testing the "Play <artist>" command, but it doesn't work for me.

Using "OK Google" syntax variants "Shuffle ABBA", "Shuffle ABBA in Poweramp", "Play ABBA Shuffled", and "Play ABBA Shuffled in Poweramp" (all of which should have the same result according Google support documents), PA always starts playback in normal artist song order rather than shuffling.
 

This is the command sequence from a simple "Play ABBA" (which for me is the same as "Play ABBA in Poweramp", as PA is my default music app):

==================
22:31:13.435 MediaSessionCallback onPause
com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
==================
22:31:13.507 DataCmdExecutor handleSearchAndPlay
obj=
    android.intent.extra.user_query_language=en-GB String
    query=ABBA String
    android.intent.extra.REFERRER_NAME=android-app://com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/https/www.google.com String
    android.intent.extra.user_query=play ABBA in Poweramp String
    android.intent.extra.focus=vnd.android.cursor.item/* String
    android.intent.extra.title=ABBA String

Then "Shuffle ABBA":

==================
22:34:50.739 MediaSessionCallback onPause
com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
==================
22:34:50.752 MediaSessionCallback onSetShuffleMode
shuffleMode=1 com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
==================
22:34:51.111 DataCmdExecutor handleSearchAndPlay
obj=
    android.intent.extra.user_query_language=en-GB String
    query=ABBA String
    android.intent.extra.REFERRER_NAME=android-app://com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/https/www.google.com String
    android.intent.extra.user_query=shuffle ABBA String
    android.intent.extra.focus=vnd.android.cursor.item/* String
    android.intent.extra.title=ABBA String

And finally "Play ABBA Shuffled":

==================
22:35:56.682 MediaSessionCallback onPause
com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
==================
22:35:56.723 MediaSessionCallback onSetShuffleMode
shuffleMode=1 com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
==================
22:35:56.898 DataCmdExecutor handleSearchAndPlay
obj=
    android.intent.extra.user_query_language=en-GB String
    query=ABBA String
    android.intent.extra.REFERRER_NAME=android-app://com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox/https/www.google.com String
    android.intent.extra.user_query=play ABBA shuffled String
    android.intent.extra.focus=vnd.android.cursor.item/* String
    android.intent.extra.title=ABBA String

All three commands cause Poweramp to commence playing ABBA songs using the 'All Artist Songs' category. None of them enable a shuffle mode.

Andre