What does everyone think about the new Update?

[[Member Duet…]]

Sorry you had to be the Guinea pig @realyquick … but thanks for all the info. It really does sound like a cruel joke at this point. You want improvements? Here’s an update that makes everything you’re complaing about even worse. I’m not updating.

[[Member real…]]

7 hours ago, DuetWithAlli said:

Sorry you had to be the Guinea pig @realyquick … but thanks for all the info. It really does sound like a cruel joke at this point. You want improvements? Here’s an update that makes everything you’re complaing about even worse. I’m not updating.

This Smule team is so dysfunctional. Some manager type dude, probably the guy who started the app, told them to create a list vs grid setting. The easy and obvious thing to do would be, when a user selects list view, present the old/original view (using code they already have). Instead they've just rearranged the new view vertically, pulling along all of its many bugs, and creating some new ones, for example a screen overlap issue when you try to look at joins. I'm done reporting bugs to these losers. This change must have taken them all of 20 minutes to make, and they didn't even bother to test it. They've now been working for 4-5 weeks on the updated screen layout, and this is what we get - a hurried change made in a few minutes.

Granted, it's just a phone app and not a real company, but we're all paying them, and we have a right to expect a stable app.

[[Member Rita…]]

I just noticed that all the joiners in my list are solid blue.  Same in as the list of those I have joined.  There used to be a tick on those who you follow and solid blue on those you don't follow.  And when I go to the profile of my friend I am not listed as following them anymore. ?? is it just me or is this another bug in the program?

[[Member Duet…]]

Ok so I decided to switch accounts, which means I now have the latest update. I actually like it! The option to switch to the list view is the best I could have hoped for. At least it shows the other singer in the collab and when it was made. Now if they could just make this option available in the favorites and bookmarks tabs because I still can’t tell who I’ll be hearing or who I’ll be joining if it’s audio only or the other singer isn’t on the cover.

Oh and I see what you mean about the overlap when looking at the joins @realyquick that is really annoying! But I think I’m pretty happy with it overall.

[[Member LOST…]]

There is Bug all around Smule that are bugging all over...Besides, their new changes are full of Shitttt!!!There were times where the joiners can change the Video FX. Now, there is no option doing that. When anyone release a song and select a Video FX, that is fixed for whoever is joining. Now these video FXs are annoying and they have graphics problem.

I have noticed that whenever I am joining someone in Video Songs, I look like a real Cannibal, or a Joker or an Anime, or a Dark Horse etc etc.... It seems joiners are the slaves of the releasers. Whatever they release for the video, we have to abide by it. And That is annoying!!! Coz, same Video FX may not compatible for everyone. That is why I miss the previous Smule Effects. That time We can change the Video FX easily while joining!!! Even they were smart enough! I compained about it once and Hell, Support replied that there were no options for Video FX before. I got furious and answered back that the person is wrong and new in Smule. Then I got a reply that, there were before but not now. Only Audio can be changed. But they are trying to develop more. How shit they are...

Another thing is, there are so many options in IOS for Smule. But not in Android!!!! There should be same options in the both platforms. But what they tell me is they ate trying to make it work and Android options are bit complicated and takes time!!! How Lame they are.. Bogus!!!!

[[Member Josh…]]

@Bloody_Cannibal — I have the same problem as you have when joining collabs... In many cases, the person who opened the collab looks fine in the Style they chose, while I look like shit (horrible skin tone, blurry, lighting, etc.). Before Smule introduced Styles, you could adjust your color settings in the collabs you join to fix any differences, but now you're stuck with whatever the other person chose. Why on earth does Smule allow you to change the audio effects but bans you from adjusting the color?

Another thing that irks me is that Smule charges the same price for VIP subscriptions to users of their Android app as they do for users of their feature-rich iOS app. That really pisses me off. It's totally unfair to charge subscribers with the stripped-down Android app the same price as they do to subscribers with the iOS app that has all of the bells and whistles. 😠

Edited May 4, 2022 by Joshua96813
link

[[Member LOST…]]

On 5/4/2022 at 12:37 PM, Joshua96813 said:

@Bloody_Cannibal — I have the same problem as you have when joining collabs... In many cases, the person who opened the collab looks fine in the Style they chose, while I look like shit (horrible skin tone, blurry, lighting, etc.). Before Smule introduced Styles, you could adjust your color settings in the collabs you join to fix any differences, but now you're stuck with whatever the other person chose. Why on earth does Smule allow you to change the audio effects but bans you from adjusting the color?

Another thing that irks me is that Smule charges the same price for VIP subscriptions to users of their Android app as they do for users of their feature-rich iOS app. That really pisses me off. It's totally unfair to charge subscribers with the stripped-down Android app the same price as they do to subscribers with the iOS app that has all of the bells and whistles. 😠

@Joshua96813You just read my mind...Exactly the same thing I am thinking of. I was telling them these things and they just keep telling they are looking into it!!! How Bogus they are!!! Really they are 100% Full Biased with iOS...They have given all the options to that OS but for Android...😠😠😠 They should have reduced charge for Android OS. Ahhhhh!!!!Its Corruption all around!!!

[[Member Xero…]]

On 2/23/2022 at 6:09 PM, LovingMusic said:

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.

I’m not a fan of the fact they took the songs uploaded into the songbook off the profiles.  I have like 10 songs uploaded at least and I planned on adding a few more original beats, or acoustic covers, remixes of new songs produced from scratch, etc... also there’s some users I’d like to be able to go to their page and just join a bunch of their songs from the songbook, but now I’ll be at the mercy of the search algorithm if it finds it or not. 
 

The screen seems really white, too. Even on dark mode.  Hurts my eyes at night.

[[Member Josh…]]

5 hours ago, Xeroform said:

I’m not a fan of the fact they took the songs uploaded into the songbook off the profiles.

The songs you've uploaded to the Songbook are still listed on your profile page... they just moved them from the "Invites" tab to the "About" tab. Same goes for the songs other users have uploaded: they're listed under the "About" tab on their profile page. (At least that's how it is in the Android version of the Smule app; I can't speak to how it is in the iOS version, since I don't use iOS.)

[[Member Duet…]]

 Can confirm that your Songs have been moved to the About tab in the iOS version as well.

Edited May 12, 2022 by DuetWithAlli
Left out a word again hehe

[[Member real…]]

They've moved it to a random and illogical location for reasons best known to them - no wonder people can't find it any more. Even bookmarks of  other peoples invites and bookmarks of songs you want to sing in the future have been moved to About, and they're in there together😣 instead of the invites tab like it used to be. Lots of needless navigation

[[Member Josh…]]

On the list of songs that I've bookmarked to sing with other people, it no longer shows the name of the other person or how many days are left open in the invitation. This is VERY frustrating because I don't always remember who the invite is from, and I usually like to prioritize... i.e., regular singing friends, and invites that are about to expire, get a higher priority. Why on earth did Smule dump those features when they did the re-design and replace them with these useless, space-wasting, thumbnail pictures? 😠

[[Member open…]]

1 hour ago, Joshua96813 said:

Why on earth did Smule dump those features when they did the re-design and replace them with these useless, space-wasting, thumbnail pictures?

As others have suggested, probably because the product managers aren’t active Smule users themselves. They aren’t realizing what is used and needed. Rather, they look at the other apps. Short videos are going viral. So now we have “Moments”. Millions flick through TikToks and Reels, so let’s auto-play everything in the feed …

[[Member Rock…]]

On 4/14/2022 at 11:47 AM, realyquick said:

Jeff Smith, CEO/founder of Smule said in a recent interview, "Focus on retaining customers, not acquiring customers. If you are good at retaining customers, you will find more new customers."

My message to Jeff Smith: Well, then listen to your customers! Don't let your team make changes to the working parts of the app, just for the sake of making changes. Keep the good parts, and fix the hundreds of bugs we keep reporting!

I hope he's reading this forum, and focusing on retaining us as customers😄

Talking points are only as true as the actions that correspond to them. 

Retaining customers would mean focusing on the elements Smule actively avoids. 

1) An intuitive interface that reduces the amount of clicks needed to start singing and leaving it alone so it becomes second nature.

2) Suggest like-minded singers who are active. As an example, if I want to sing with someone who likes Motown and has video opens, I should be able to search for that.

3) Paid users should have an option to mute "verified" accounts.  I'm not supposed to see ads on apps I pay for. This includes having to click off an annoying pop up to use the app.

4) They have GOT to allow people to cut/paste usernames & comments, edit comments, send gifs (not gifts),  have clickable. hyperlinks on profile pages etc. Not everyone has to be social, but it should have the same social media features most other apps have.

5) Show the available opens within each genre in chronological order so the OCs customers create are actually seen.

Am I missing anything?

[[Member Josh…]]

5 hours ago, RockMeSlowly said:

Suggest like-minded singers who are active. As an example, if I want to sing with someone who likes Motown and has video opens, I should be able to search for that.

I like that idea very much. That would be really cool.

Also, I agree that Smule's paying VIP subscribers should not have to put up with those annoying pop-up ads. I complained to them about this last year, and they claimed that the pop-ups aren't ads, but rather just announcements about things on Smule that they suppose people might be interested in. Well, okay, but it's still annoying and I've never seen a pop-up on Smule that was anything of interest to me.

Here's a feature idea I'd like to see: Let the user choose in the settings which page they want to be the default page when they open the app. I'd prefer it opened to either my Profile page or to the Activity page, instead of the current default Songbook page, which I rarely find of any interest and normally immediately click away from once the annoying pop-up "ad" lets me. I almost never look at or use the Feed and Explore pages, and if I do, it's usually because I accidentally clicked on them. 🥴

[[Member real…]]

11 hours ago, RockMeSlowly said:

Talking points are only as true as the actions that correspond to them. 

Retaining customers would mean focusing on the elements Smule actively avoids. 

1) An intuitive interface that reduces the amount of clicks needed to start singing and leaving it alone so it becomes second nature.

2) Suggest like-minded singers who are active. As an example, if I want to sing with someone who likes Motown and has video opens, I should be able to search for that.

3) Paid users should have an option to mute "verified" accounts.  I'm not supposed to see ads on apps I pay for. This includes having to click off an annoying pop up to use the app.

4) They have GOT to allow people to cut/paste usernames & comments, edit comments, send gifs (not gifts),  have clickable. hyperlinks on profile pages etc. Not everyone has to be social, but it should have the same social media features most other apps have.

5) Show the available opens within each genre in chronological order so the OCs customers create are actually seen.

Am I missing anything?

Awesome ideas here.

If only smule would make real improvements like these! And none of these would be difficult to implement - instead of screwing around with the layout and making it worse with each release.

[[Member Rock…]]

On 5/24/2022 at 2:07 PM, Joshua96813 said:

pop-ups aren't ads, but rather just announcements about things on Smule that they suppose people might be interested in.

hahahaha OMFG. I can't believe that reply!  They literally are defining what an advertisement is. 😂 

What's really scary is the thought that they're pushing all this annoying stuff without getting paid. lol

FYI, I like your start page idea a lot. 😁👍

[[Member open…]]

37 minutes ago, RockMeSlowly said:

hahahaha OMFG. I can't believe that reply!  They literally are defining what an advertisement is.

An ad is defined as promoting a product or service, but a partner artist join is no product or service. Smule doesn’t sell them and doesn’t earn anything if you join. It it is indeed just a recommendation for something you can do in the app. Just as they have those rotating banners about Style Studio, Start a Freestyle, and so on. I wouldn’t argue against a setting to opt-out of these partner artist recommendations, but I also don’t really see the problem with it, especially since this is standard practice. If you pay for an TV channel or streaming service, you might not get a video ad for McDonald’s, but they will still show you recommendations for content to watch on the same service. Paying doesn’t mean “no recommendation whatsoever”. 
And while I am am probably not interested in 99% of the partner artists recommended to me, the remaining 1% could be partner artists I will absolutely LOVE to join. But how would I ever find out about them if they aren’t “forced” upon me? It’s not like I would want to check a list of partner artist somewhere on the app every week. 

[[Member Josh…]]

40 minutes ago, opentype said:

they have those rotating banners about Style Studio, Start a Freestyle, and so on

The rotating banners, or even fixed banners, aren't a problem for me, because if I see something on them that I'm interested in, then I can click on it for more info. It's the pop-ups that are the problem, because they impede the user's efficient use of the app. In other words, when I open the app, I have to either click through or close the pop-up before I can do anything else. Sometimes I've already clicked away from the default Songbook page before the pop-up appears, and when I click to close the pop-up, it takes me back to the Songbook page, and then I have to click again to go to my Profile page or other page. So, those pop-ups are a time-waster and a real annoyance.

[[Member Rock…]]

On 10/15/2021 at 8:36 AM, _RamKrish1012 said:

Some one followed me two days ago and out of curiosity I checked the followers profile. Did not have a single recording tio the name but had 6K Plus Followers and was being Followed by 3K followers. So I reported the member and received tyhis response from Smule today.

"Hi there,
Thank you for taking the time to report this!
After a review of the account you reported, it became clear that the actions of the user go against our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service.
We have moved forward with a permanent termination of the account.
Please let us know if we can assist with anything else.
Regards,"
 

For Once Smule has taken decisive Action and I am happy.

 

I wonder how people actually accomplish this?

Edited May 26, 2022 by RockMeSlowly

[[Member Rock…]]

5 hours ago, opentype said:

An ad is defined as promoting a product or service, but a partner artist join is no product or service. Smule doesn’t sell them and doesn’t earn anything if you join. It it is indeed just a recommendation for something you can do in the app. Just as they have those rotating banners about Style Studio, Start a Freestyle, and so on. I wouldn’t argue against a setting to opt-out of these partner artist recommendations, but I also don’t really see the problem with it, especially since this is standard practice. If you pay for an TV channel or streaming service, you might not get a video ad for McDonald’s, but they will still show you recommendations for content to watch on the same service. Paying doesn’t mean “no recommendation whatsoever”. 
And while I am am probably not interested in 99% of the partner artists recommended to me, the remaining 1% could be partner artists I will absolutely LOVE to join. But how would I ever find out about them if they aren’t “forced” upon me? It’s not like I would want to check a list of partner artist somewhere on the app every week. 

With that said, Smule isn't Hulu or Netflix.  It doesn't create entertainment for subscribers, rather the subscribers are the content creators. It's like a giant workshop.

When any social app suggests people to connect with, it's almost always based on an algorithm that takes your interest into account. 

The idea being to create bonds to attach a user to the platform and/or sell something. Without a reason, it exists only to disrupt the user's experience.

I'm mainly talking about pop ups and the need to navigate around these horrid "sing with" promotions that feature random people & genres I have never once listened to.

Many "sing with"profiles  are following nobody and have a ghastly amount of followers. If they aren't paid, how is this occuring organically? 

I wouldn't complain if I wasn't paying for it  

[[Member Rock…]]

5 hours ago, opentype said:

And while I am am probably not interested in 99% of the partner artists recommended to me, the remaining 1% could be partner artists I will absolutely LOVE to join. But how would I ever find out about them if they aren’t “forced” upon me? It’s not like I would want to check a list of partner artist somewhere on the app every week.

Yes, you'd lose the %1 of profiles, but are there actually people on the other end of those accounts? Have you ever once established a singing connection with one if them?

Regardless, it would be more palatable if the app did anything to actually bring like minded people together.  Great singers come and go without any attention being paid to them.

Sorry to rant. I just wish this app wasn't designed for kids.

[[Member Josh…]]

8 hours ago, RockMeSlowly said:

Sorry to rant. I just wish this app wasn't designed for kids.

Sometimes ranting helps to relieve some of the frustration, so go right ahead and rant.

I've come to the conclusion that Smule is being designed and programmed not just for kids, but by "kids." 🥴

[[Member open…]]

12 hours ago, RockMeSlowly said:

Yes, you'd lose the %1 of profiles, but are there actually people on the other end of those accounts? Have you ever once established a singing connection with one if them?

No, but who says that is a relevant factor? Smule is being used by millions of people. You can’t expect it to be tailored to your personal use. The celebrity duets are something that a significant percentage of Smule users—of all ages!—love. That’s why they are there and that’s why they are being promoted in the app. I joined just a few over the years, but I absolutely treasure them. It’s an amazing opportunity and part of the Smule experience. It doesn’t need to be hidden away because someone only wants to have duets which potentially establish a “singing connection”. 

4 hours ago, Joshua96813 said:

… so go right ahead and rant.

No, please don’t. Problem with rants is that they are rarely constructive and that they are one-sided at best, but often get outright dishonest. Case in point: Claiming that Smule is made for or made by kids. This is clearly and obviously not true, so why even say it? Why lie in public? Just because it somehow makes you feel better in the moment? This is not Facebook or Twitter. This community is meant to have civil discussions which are helpful to everyone involved. False or exaggerated claims are not helpful. While this platform is independent from Smule and criticism of Smule is allowed, it needs to be civil and constructive. 

12 hours ago, RockMeSlowly said:

When any social app suggests people to connect with, it's almost always based on an algorithm that takes your interest into account. 

Same for Smule. The celebrity duets suggested to me are international stars or singers using my native language. There are hundreds of partner artists which I couldn’t join because I don’t even speak the language, but Smule also doesn’t suggest them to me. 

[[Member Josh…]]

4 minutes ago, opentype said:

Claiming that Smule is made for or made by kids. This is clearly and obviously not true, so why even say it?

I did NOT make any such claim. I said I came to that conclusion, and in the context of the conversation that's going on, I thought it would be understood that it seems like "kids" are doing the programming. I even put kids in quotation marks to indicate that I meant people who are acting like kids, and not actual children. I didn't think it was necessary to spell it out, but apparently the message I was trying to convey wasn't clear enough for you, and you missed the point entirely.

As far as ranting goes, whether it's constructive criticism or just frustration, I don't have any problem with it as long as the rant is well written and understandable, which @RockMeSlowly usually does.