Smart Shuffle brings new songs into the queue.
Smart Shuffle shuffles songs that fit into the queue. Unsplash
For a long time, Spotify has offered random playback, with which the songs of the playlist, album or artist you are listening to are played randomly. The feature is excellent, because this way you don’t always get the same songs right away when you start listening.
Now Spotify has started offering a feature called Smart Shuffle to some Finnish users. The feature may replace the Tuunaa feature that was already in use. There is no additional information about the feature on Spotify’s help site.
If you have Smart Shuffle in use, you can start it from the shuffle button in the playlist view. Based on the test, the feature is only used in playlists that you have created yourself. This opens a menu through which it is possible to choose either standard or “smart” shuffle.
Tapping the shuffle button opens a pop-up menu like this from the bottom. Screenshot
Smart Shuffle adds songs to the queue that match the music you’re already listening to. These songs are added based on how they fit together with other songs in the queue.
Songs imported from outside the playlist are marked with a green mark. Screenshot
Spotify has already offered the Tuunaa feature, which in the same way makes it possible to bring songs from outside the playlists to the playlist. If this feature is used together with shuffle, the result is much the same as in Smart Shuffle.
In Iltalehti’s editorial department, we tested whether the feature can be found in applications on different phones. Available features varied between different devices with Spotify Premium subscribers. For example, some users didn’t have the Tuunaa feature on Android at all, but Smart Shuffle was offered to these people. Smart Shuffle was not available on iPhone and some Android phones, but the Tuunaa feature was found.
This is how Spotify describes the function. Screenshot
Some users have been using Smart Shuffle since spring. In the United States, the new feature has already been heavily criticized in the Spotify community. According to many users, the bar rising separately from the bottom brings more unnecessary taps, and does not serve users in its current form. The feature suggestion cannot be turned off via Spotify’s settings.