Smule blog: iOS Testing of Potential Updated Feed Player

[Sing.Salon bot]

We’re thrilled to announce that we’re testing an Updated Feed Player, with the goal of enhancing your experience, discovery, and personalized recommendations. For now, the testing phase will involve iOS users only.

The Updated Feed Player is designed to transform how you explore and enjoy performances, with the introduction of two dynamic tabs: ‘For You’ and ‘Following’.

View the full article on the Smule blog

[Wishchip]

I'd be curious to see where the new "For You" and "Following" tabs are in the app, and if they're replace anything (fingers crossed for the News tab getting the boot). "For You" sounds largely useless to me, as I don't need to see more recommendations from Smule. And I don't know how useful "Following" would be if I'm already receiving invites in the Activity section of the app.

And hooooo boy I've seen some screenshots and videos of the new "intuitive design" and it looks absolutely awful. I can't imagine they'll keep that for very long, given some users' initial feedback.

Edited September 5 by Wishchip

[DuetWithAlli]

Oooh, I just noticed today that I have this. I rarely use the feed anyway, just happened to look because it said there was something new.

Under the Feed tab, I can toggle between “Following” and “For You”. So if I leave it on “Following”, I see the activities of my followees, minus all of the random invites and junk that Smule is always trying to push on me. I love this! 

I don’t notice any changes to the other tabs.  Sorry @Wishchip the News tab is still there.

[_Joe_Church_]

I find it a horrible experience. I click on it and people start singing, I have to turn down the volume, it's so loud. Unless I know the song I don't even know what they're singing because the title appears in a little square that I can barely see.

I'm not going to open the "for you" tab in my life, although I don't sing lately I have had the good habit of following only those who have joined me at least once in the past. I only sing to those and if I sing and they don't comment anything in a week, not even a "Thank you", I automatically assume they have no interest and I stop following them (with some exceptions).

[Wishchip]

14 hours ago, DuetWithAlli said:

Under the Feed tab, I can toggle between “Following” and “For You”.

The Feed tab? The one way over on the left that I never go to? Haha, good I can just ignore this "feature" then too.

[DuetWithAlli]

1 hour ago, Wishchip said:

The Feed tab? The one way over on the left that I never go to? Haha, good I can just ignore this "feature" then too.

That’s the one! Lol … Yeah, I’ve never been much of a fan of the Feed tab. I feel like watching the Feed could make a person crazy. I’m just happy to know that everyone has the option of not seeing invites they didn't ask for from people they’re not following. 

[Wishchip]

On 9/6/2024 at 11:31 AM, DuetWithAlli said:

I’ve never been much of a fan of the Feed tab. 

If I had to put the tabs in order of usefulness, it would look like this:

1. Activity - for notifications and invites. News is there too, but it's the least useful feature within the most useful tab. Maybe that's why its existence is so hilarious to me.

2. Profile - for bookmarked invites and to clear the dot for recent gifts through the About section.

3. Songbook - I see it the most because it's the default screen on app startup, but I never actually use it. Thank goodness we can customize what we see there at least.

FIFTY FEET OF SNOW

4. Explore - If I ever check this page, it's to validate my views on how Smule will feature the same 20 users and/or members of the same 5 groups over and over and over again.

5. Feed - the Explore tab is already useless, and Smule wants me to navigate further left to check out an even less useful tab? Hahaha, no thanks. And this update makes it sound even worse.

[DuetWithAlli]

@_Joe_Church_ Oh, yes, I had forgotten about the initial shock factor! Had my volume turned up all the way and hit the Feed. I’m with you there as far as the usefulness and likelihood that I’ll use it  more than I used it before.

And also, I appreciate your approach to who you follow and sing with on Smule. 

@Wishchip ok that is hilarious! Made me lol for real 😂 Nailed it! I feel like the gifts are buried under 50 feet of snow too though, regardless of which tab they’re found under. I stopped sending paid gifts because who knows if the recipient is going to do all of the digging required to find them. 

News is funny because it’s mostly just recycled crap you can easily find under other useless tabs all gathered into one convenient spot. I’d think there has to be a better way to communicate new features? Like I seem to recall that at some point they a little message box would pop up before you started singing a song, telling you to check out the new feature, maybe even upon opening the app?

[The Minty Clinch]

Guess what? It’s crap. I only follow about 4 people just to keep my feed clean and manageable, now I can’t even do that, I’m force fed a performance that I don’t want to see. I’m not even annoyed, just resigned.

[The Minty Clinch]

It’s nice that they’ve given us a comments thread about it, where everyone can say how much they dislike it, and Smule can then ignore.

Edited September 19 by The Minty Clinch

[Wishchip]

24 minutes ago, The Minty Clinch said:

It’s nice that they’ve given us a comments thread about it, where everyone can say how much they dislike it, and Smule can then ignore.

Reading the comments on their video is hilarious. Virtually everyone hates it.

 

[opentype]

The approach is obvious: they want the emulate what works so well on TikTok, Instagram (Reels) and YouTube (Shorts). Engaging auto-play videos you scroll through endlessly. 

But the videos on those platforms are optimised for this usage. Users look at a new video and decide within 1 or 2 seconds whether it’s worth watching and the videos are optimised to deliver something in those 1 or 2 seconds. That just doesn’t work with Smule performances. I scroll through the new feed and all I see is people waving at the camera while the intro of a song plays for 15 seconds; or even worse: just a spinning globe with one or two random Smule users I don’t know or care about. Maybe it would work better if the auto-play videos would fade into the first chorus. 

[ItsMeRKSinger]

Does it mean they also integrate the tipping feature into this new tiktok-reels-like view?

[Wishchip]

7 hours ago, opentype said:

But the videos on those platforms are optimised for this usage. Users look at a new video and decide within 1 or 2 seconds whether it’s worth watching and the videos are optimised to deliver something in those 1 or 2 seconds. That just doesn’t work with Smule performances. I scroll through the new feed and all I see is people waving at the camera while the intro of a song plays for 15 seconds; or even worse: just a spinning globe with one or two random Smule users I don’t know or care about. Maybe it would work better if the auto-play videos would fade into the first chorus. 

Now THIS is a fantastic viewpoint. We basically need the Smule equivalent of the online "TRAILER STARTS NOW" feature that shows 5-10 seconds of the best bits of a movie trailer, which is like you said, the first chorus. Otherwise it's not attention-grabbing enough.

[Wotever]

Everyone I know hates the new feed. 

[SingingFool]

On 9/20/2024 at 12:08 AM, opentype said:

The approach is obvious: they want the emulate what works so well on TikTok, Instagram (Reels) and YouTube (Shorts). Engaging auto-play videos you scroll through endlessly. 

…I scroll through the new feed and all I see is people waving at the camera while the intro of a song plays for 15 seconds; or even worse: just a spinning globe with one or two random Smule users I don’t know or care about. Maybe it would work better if the auto-play videos would fade into the first chorus. 

I wasn’t part of the beta testing so just recently got the new feed. I like the old quiet feed that let me quickly scroll through. It was mostly a visual experience for me. When I’m bored or just being nosey, I like to see what my peeps are up to, what they’re singing, who’s active. If I’m curious to listen, I liked that I used to be able to decide to listen rather than being force fed audio as it is in the current feed. I don’t think I’d like to have the feed songs open up at the chorus…I don’t mind people waving 👋🏽.

But I see what you mean about if Smule is trying copy TikTok they should broadcast from the part where the singers are actually singing. Main point for me anyway is I’d prefer a quiet feed where I can pick what I choose to listen to.

One neutral observation, I do notice that my listen count on a lot of songs is going up ☝🏽but not sure if more people are actually listening or if they are just being forced to. Also more random people are liking (❤️-ing) my songs which maybe can be attributed to the new feed? Not saying good or bad, just an observation. 
 

Bottom line, I like the old feed better. 

[E_L_E]

On 9/6/2024 at 10:48 PM, Wishchip said:

The Feed tab? The one way over on the left that I never go to? Haha, good I can just ignore this "feature" then too.

Me too. Lol 😂

[DuetWithAlli]

Changed my mind lol … I hate it! It automatically defaults to “For You” upon opening, so with that, Smule has ensured that I will never click on the Feed ever again. I don’t appreciate having people I don’t follow forced upon me.

[Guest]

It would be nice if smule allowed us to control the content of our own personal feed, only have the songs of people we follow in our feed. I have loads of people blocked and they continue to pop up in my feed as suggestions. My only interest in listening to the feed is to hear songs i may want to join or open, and it also helps seeing any notifications i may have missed. But i would definitely prefer not having people who i dont enjoy their voices or personalities in my feed. Smule should give us the ability to adjust the content of our own feed so we dont have to feel tortured by those we cant stand listening to.

[SingingFool]

I just turned the volume down and that solved the unwanted audio problem. 😆I can always turn it back up if I want to listen. 

[Wishchip]

The thing with this new update is that Feed used to be a place to view other people's activity (if that was your thing). But its functionality has totally changed now that it's a song player. But with it being just another avenue for Smule to pimp out their over-promoted content, it's actually even less useful to me, which I didn't think was even possible.

https://blog.smule.com/title-explore-engage-enjoy-introducing-the-new-feed-player/

[Guest]

Ive always looked at the feed to see what songs my followers were singing, to see what i may want to join or open, and sometimes it helps to see notifications you may have missed,because unfortunately the notifications feed fills up with bs if even 1 person joins your song and they are a member of a support club clicking blind likes on songs. Kinda annoying. Not a fan of blind likes or support clubs. Especially when the bs fills up my feed and i miss joins from followers and then they are messaging their songs to me like im being rude missing their joins. It would be nice to have control over what is in our feed. 

[Guest]

Its especially annoying when you are watching your song still waiting to upload, and as its still optimizing the recording, 5 people already clicked like and gifted the song and its not even finished uploading, then the audacity to put a comment on the song saying bookmarked, and it hasnt even finished loading on my end. Lmao

[Wishchip]

On 9/20/2024 at 2:43 AM, ItsMeRKSinger said:

Does it mean they also integrate the tipping feature into this new tiktok-reels-like view?

I haven't seen anyone mention that yet, so I doubt it. You would probably still need to tap on a user's name to go to their profile. And then you can tip them from their profile page (if they have it enabled).

18 hours ago, DuetWithAlli said:

It automatically defaults to “For You” upon opening 

Yep, exactly how TikTok is.

[Guest]

Ive heard alot of people taking about singing on tiktok. Im not one of those social butterfly media junkies that has 50 different ways to chat with people. And be like Stuart look what i can do lmao!  I have smule and thats it. So when yall talk about tiktok and instagram reels, im like huh??? Whatcha talkin bout Willis lol!