What does everyone think about the new Update?

[[Member smre…]]

So Smule updated a new style to your profile. What does everyone think of it?

Personally, I like the old one better this one is just so confusing. I don’t hate it, it’s just I don’t like it. 

[[Member Glen…]]

I prefer the older version

[[Member real…]]

Cluttered, confused, ugly, bad.

You just see a bunch of pictures. You can't even see the names of people who've joined you. Before you used to be able to see a streamlined list of the names of those who joined, song title, when they joined, number of likes, comments and gifts. It was so much easier, so much better.

Heck, if you bookmark someone's invite, you can't see those until you go to about, and even there they mix up the invites you bookmarked with the songs you've queued up to open in the future.

It's like, I would actually pay to go back to the version from a year back. These guys have spent all their time messing around with the user interface, but in a bad way. In the process they keep introducing new bugs which there are frequent releases to fix, providing job security for their team.

There are so many real bugs they need to fix, but they ignore all of that.. they prefer to spend their time breaking stuff that used to work beautifully before. The chat feature is a slow, buggy mess. Something as simple as Changing reverb on the audio setting is a non-intuitive, multi-step process.. it used to be so easy before.

Then, there are all the features they've removed. You could select auto-play a list of songs or not.. that's gone. You could rewind to the start of a song to replay it, that's gone. You used to be able to see the time while a song is playing (how many minutes and seconds you are in the song), that's gone. So many more.

This team seems to be determined to make the smule experience as bad as possible, while increasing the subscription fees to pay the team that's breaking everything! Makes no sense at all. They should lay off most of the developers, restore the version back to a year or so back, and reduce subscription.

[[Member Lovi…]]

I totally agree, this update really sucks. Instead of making things easier and more enjoyable, they did exactly the opposite. I pray that they change it back.

[[Member Isa_…]]

2 hours ago, glen craig said:

I prefer the older version

yeah I agree with you.. with the new version, you cant see who are VIP from your joiners, so you need to open it one by one..

[[Member sdr…]]

13 hours ago, realyquick said:

Cluttered, confused, ugly, bad.

You said it.

People making these kinds of changes are beyond redemption. No point telling them. 🙁

[[Member Isa_…]]

12 minutes ago, sdr said:

You said it.

People making these kinds of changes are beyond redemption. No point telling them. 🙁

Coz they won't listen..

[[Member sdr…]]

18 hours ago, smrenwick1 said:

So Smule updated a new style to your profile. What does everyone think of it?

Personally, I like the old one better this one is just so confusing. I don’t hate it, it’s just I don’t like it. 

This picture gallery appeared in my profile may be six months ago and it filled with me anger and disgust. Luckily it stayed only for a day and disappeared. Now I have the old list profile and will be happy till it lasts. If you do an update request, I am sure the picture gallery will appear. So if anyone has the old profile, never even think about updating smule. 😜

Edited February 24, 2022 by sdr

[[Member Lovi…]]

Has anyone tried a website called Uptodown.com? Apparently they have the old version of Smule available to download but I’m not sure if it is safe. I really don’t like this new version as it is very messy and confusing and you can’t even see who are the two singers in a duet unless you play the song. None of these changes make any sense to me.

[[Member Josh…]]

The new interface looks lovely, but functionally it's a disaster. Hideous!!!

[[Member real…]]

10 hours ago, sdr said:

This picture gallery appeared in my profile may be six months ago and it filled with me anger and disgust. Luckily it stayed only for a day and disappeared. Now I have the old list profile and will be happy till it lasts. If you do an update request, I am sure the picture gallery will appear. So if anyone has the old profile, never even think about updating smule. 😜

Sadly it doesn't work that way any more. They've started pushing some of the user interface through the server, so now you won't get that nice list view even with the old version of the app.

However, if you look at your profile from a browser you still get the list view.. so there's that. Maybe I shouldn't have said that cos now they'll read this and go spoil the browser view too

[[Member sdr…]]

29 minutes ago, realyquick said:

They've started pushing some of the user interface through the server

It could be true. But they still have a branch where the display is in the list form and I am perched on that branch till now. Don't know how long it will last.

But some of the "great functionalities" like not displaying time during playback has arrived a month ago. 😜

[[Member sdr…]]

8 hours ago, LovingMusic said:

Apparently they have the old version of Smule available to download but I’m not sure if it is safe

That's of no use if they send you through the picture gallery on the server. They seem to have a logic in deciding whom to send the way of doom! 

May be if you wish so badly that the new profile should disappear, it might go😛 That's what happened in my case.😂

🏃🏃🏃

[[Member smre…]]

18 hours ago, Ysabel_aus2019 said:

Coz they won't listen..

That sucks. 😢 So there’s no way to tell them that the update sucks or giving them a complaint or a feedback?

[[Member My2C…]]

8 minutes ago, smrenwick1 said:

That sucks. 😢 So there’s no way to tell them that the update sucks or giving them a complaint or a feedback?

You could give them feedback, and if they get enough complaints, they just might do something. Key word being Might

[[Member smre…]]

It’s worth a try. 😅 Thank you so much for the help. Does anyone know how I can email Smule for my feedback/Complaint?

[[Member My2C…]]

https://smule.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new 

Hope that helps!

[[Member Josh…]]

1 hour ago, smrenwick1 said:

It’s worth a try. 😅 Thank you so much for the help. Does anyone know how I can email Smule for my feedback/Complaint?

On your profile page in Smule's Android app, tap the menu icon in the upper right corner, then select "Help." When the Help page opens, near the top right of the page, tap on "Submit a request." When that page opens, there's a drop-down box to choose a category, and one of them is "Feature Requests / Product Feedback." A form will then appear where you can enter your user information and your feedback.

[[Member Lovi…]]

13 hours ago, sdr said:

That's of no use if they send you through the picture gallery on the server. They seem to have a logic in deciding whom to send the way of doom! 

May be if you wish so badly that the new profile should disappear, it might go😛 That's what happened in my case.😂

🏃🏃🏃

You are correct. I tried installing old versions on an old phone to test it and it was the same thing 😔 

[[Member real…]]

Smule doesn't have a forum or any place where you can submit feedback, but the closest (aside from this forum) is reviews of their app on the App Store. Sort them by "Most Recent" and this is the sort of thing you see from the last couple days, along with 1-star ratings. Check out their dismissive responses.. to paraphrase, "We understand you're surprised, but we don't care"🤨 They could easily add a setting in the app, Classic list style view or New picture gallery view, but they'll keep pushing back on the opinions of paying customers.

___

Review: "I hate this new interface. Your page doesn't even organize your songs or show you when they were uploaded. Trash change it back!!!!!"

Developer Response

Thank you for your feedback. Don't hesitate to send a note over and provide as much details as possible.
___

Review: "Why did Smule change the App layout!!!???"

(no response)

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Review: "The profile page was automatically redesigned and implemented and now half of the information displayed is gone. It was all vital to tracking how long a song was posted so you know when they expire. iOS iPhone user the functionality of the app has been destroyed! Confident Smule will clean up their mess ???"

Developer Response

Hey, thanks for sharing your feedback! We understand it can be surprising when there are changes. In the last months, we have worked tirelessly to add features based on the thoughts of our users. If you want to share anything else with us, you can contact us by email at [email protected] Meanwhile, we hope you explore what is possible with Styles.

___

Review: 

This latest update to the profile page really stinks. It is a waste of real estate.

There are just so many things that are worse than the old interface.

The bookmarks for invites and for songs are now combined. Who came up with this brilliant (sarcasm intended) idea? The invites tab used to be the right place for bookmarked invites.

Earlier, if I opened an invite from another page, I could bookmark it and then, hit the blank area under it which would open up a page with all the joins.

Now, if I try to click anywhere around it, it does not do anything. It just opens the invite. How do I get to all the joins. I know I can go to the page and its channel and from there, go to all my joins. That is too cumbersome. I cannot seem to get to my joins from the invite on my own id which I used to be able to.

Developer Response

We understand it can be surprising when there are changes.

[[Member sdr…]]

8 hours ago, realyquick said:

Now, if I try to click anywhere around it, it does not do anything. It just opens the invite. How do I get to all the joins

Now that is innovation 😜

In the old profile if you tap on a bookmarked invite and a back tap on it, it shows the joins. According to you even that is screwed up now🤔

Another irritating thing is that you cannot go from a recording to its listing position in the profile. The profile almost always starts at the top and you have to scroll to the date and time of the recording through thousands of rows.🙁

[[Member real…]]

15 hours ago, sdr said:

In the old profile if you tap on a bookmarked invite and a back tap on it, it shows the joins. According to you even that is screwed up now🤔

Right, just tapping on a bookmarked invite showed you a list of joins, one on each line, showing who joined, when they joined, number of likes, comments, gifts. Now you get zilch.. nothing happens. The invite itself might start playing.

15 hours ago, sdr said:

Another irritating thing is that you cannot go from a recording to its listing position in the profile. The profile almost always starts at the top and you have to scroll to the date and time of the recording through thousands of rows.🙁

Yup they made it hard to find😏

Also a 🎶 used to show up on the collab that's playing, if you're looking at a bunch of collabs (or pics in this new layout). Now.. nothing. You have no idea which one is playing. What was the point of removing all these features?? Ridiculous really, they've made it so difficult to use that I don't feel like using the app any more.

Looks like the original designers and programmers were people who used the app and enjoyed karaoke, while this new set of people who have changed the layout don't actually use it. So they have no concept of how they've ruined it.

[[Member sdr…]]

6 hours ago, realyquick said:

Looks like the original designers and programmers were people who used the app and enjoyed karaoke, while this new set of people who have changed the layout don't actually use it

I totally agree with your reasoning and mentioned this in an earlier post of mine. They just don't try to see the app from the user's perspective. 🤔 It is clear none of them sings, or at least not on this app.😂

[[Member sdr…]]

6 hours ago, realyquick said:

Now.. nothing. You have no idea which one is playing. What was the point of removing all these features??

The programmers are new and the programming libraries they use are new. They seem to have no idea how to keep the original features in the new programs. No experienced programmer would attempt to break such beautiful running app.🤔 

[[Member real…]]

11 hours ago, sdr said:

The programmers are new and the programming libraries they use are new. They seem to have no idea how to keep the original features in the new programs. No experienced programmer would attempt to break such beautiful running app.🤔 

It sure looks that way from a software engineer's perspective (which I am, and I'm guessing you are too). They are, in essence, re-writing the entire app. And their new version sucks, compared to the old working version.

That explains why we see weekly updates - sometimes more than once a week - in an app that's what, 6 or 7 years old? I've never seen anything like it. This is an absolute disservice to people who pay regular subscription fees to use this app, and have been for years. The code was stable and solid, running well for a long time. Development was paid for, and it was time to start reducing the subscription fees and put the code into maintenance mode. I would argue that the most valuable content in the app are the track uploads, which need to be done on an ongoing basis, but which are done by the subscribers themselves!

We pay regular subscription fees, we keep uploading tracks, and these developers keep removing features and adding bugs. There's got to be some kind of law against this sort of thing 😂