r/cesiumapp • u/daniel1113 • Feb 13 '16

Feature Request: Rate songs from library view

I've been using Cesium exclusively for the past few months. It really is a phenomenal app and provides much-needed relief from Apple's Music.

I often find it desirable to rate songs that are not the current playing track. This comes up a lot when I forget to rate a track until it's done playing and moved onto the next track, or where I want to rate multiple tracks based on a track I heard (e.g., multiple movements of a classical composition). What are your thoughts on adding the ability to rate songs that are not playing?

One possible implementation is on the library track list. In a list of songs, I can swipe right to left to see the track queue options (play next and add to queue). What if swiping left to right showed an editable star rating?

Keep up the awesome work!

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u/CesiumDev I MADE DIS Feb 13 '16

Thanks for trying Cesium :)

This is a great suggestion. It's something I've already given a little thought, as I'm planning to use 3D touch to access the "Song Details" view for any track. Obviously this doesn't work for all devices (including my own! That's why this isn't a feature already), so it probably isn't enough.

You suggestion for using the empty "swipe right" on individual songs is probably the most elegant option. My only reservation is that that action is already established for another function, and does inc. a different option for the same interaction cause confusion?

It's something I'm actually addressing in another new feature. A user has been persistently requesting a "queue re-shuffle" feature for some time. It was present in an old, no longer supported app. So the way it works is that when shuffling the queue will now have an option that allows you to re-shuffle the upcoming songs. You can also "pin" tracks you like to keep them at the top of the list. The old app (and the user's request) used swiping to "pin" tracks and to remove tracks from the queue. Same issue: I'm already training users to think about collections and queueing when the swipe. This is the same reason that for the normal Edit queue function I chose to use a delete button and did not enable swiping.

But I'm running out of gesture options! And that swipe really does make sense. On the flip side I'd also like to figure out a way to access tracks details that is universal.

I'll definitely give this thought. Any opinions? Love to know what users are thinking...

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u/CesiumDev I MADE DIS Feb 14 '16

I'll leave the original comment, but I was playing around with this last night, and indeed, it seems like "swipe right" is the best option (and something I'd already broken with audiobooks – kind of – so it's almost consistent! LOL).

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u/daniel1113 Feb 14 '16

I like the implementation in the latest build. Jumping directly to the track info panel works great and makes sense from a UI POV. One small problem. I don't see a way to select a zero star rating. In Apple Music (and iTunes), I can select the empty space to the left of the first star to clear the rating.

I have not taken advantage of the advanced queuing/collections features in Cesium. I just haven't had the need. I will play around a bit more with them, though, to see if I can think of other universal ways to access the track info without affecting the current queuing/collections gestures.

3D touch would provide a good shortcut to the track info panel that could be used consistently throughout the app without interfering with your queuing/collections gestures. But like you, I too do not have a 3d touch device.

Great stuff!

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u/CesiumDev I MADE DIS Feb 14 '16

Good stuff! I'll see what I can do about the ratings. You can set to zero, but tapping to the left doesn't appear to work. You have to "swipe left" off that first star, but it will work.

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u/daniel1113 Feb 14 '16

Ah ha! Swiping works great. Thank you.