Android Auto Behavior (Album Artist browsing)

[damman]

I had been running the version 2.x GMMP forever and hadn't really been driving much since the past year happened.

Recently moved up to 3.0. 


While operating GMMP in Android Auto, one thing I am noting is that when I browse by Album Artist and select the Album Artist, it goes directly into playing all the tracks by the album artist. 


Shouldn't it go into a list of albums much like the primary app does? 

Am I missing a setting?  (nothing jumped out at me)


In another player I've used in the past, browsing by Album Artist leads to a list of albums, so I don't think it is specifically an Android Auto limitation.  And GMMP is so much better; I especially like all the updated tag handling in the 3.x series.  

[GoneMAD]

What you are seeing is how it was designed. From very early on google stressed that android auto implementations be quick and simple since its typically operated while driving. Its the reason why there is a separate full integration setting to expose more than what is there by default

Searching for specific songs or albums by a specific artist is intended to be done via voice search i believe.

I'm not saying this wont change in the future but whats currently there is what was intended

edit: while these are different than when i first implemented android audio years ago (which specifically gave examples against what you describe), the general idea still applies: developers.google.com/cars/design/design-foundations/interaction-principles#keep_information_current_and_glanceable

edit2: also as far as i know auto does not allow a long press or adding menus to options.. so there is no way to either "browse an artist" and "play all songs from artist" using the same UI

[damman]

I guess I was hoping that in clicking on Album Artist I could then see there albums and click on the album and the album plays (no need to see tracks). I don't see how that would be terrible; it does seem Google had relaxed a bit because many apps started showing more features along the lines of what I would like; although as you know few incorporate Album Artist, and you're the only one that implements the Sort tags that I know of.

As it is, I usually start an album as I start the car so that I don't have to interact with the system by hand while driving. My experience has been the verbal asking for an album has never worked well through any apps except Spotify (which hasn't been perfect either).

In terms of long-presses and so forth, that wouldn't be my intent. On the other app I had tried, I think their way of dealing with potential options like that was to have the first list item under the art to play all songs from the artist and then list the albums below it.

By the way, for track artists, I could see it making sense to just queue everything up in shuffle mode. It just seems like the purpose of Album Artist is to help group albums together.

I do agree that if the verbal response from the console was better the above wouldn't matter much or be needed. The only other issue I've had with the verbal methods is the seemingly need for exactness in making requests (especially if I don't remember the name of an album exactly); this seems to be a global issue as I've not seen an implementation with any app that works perfectly. Spotify starts playing and flashes up alternative options to tap, which kind of works. But, I'm digressing now.

[GoneMAD]

yeah i mostly agree with you. The current implementation of android auto in GMMP was done many years ago when things were different (gmmp was basically one of the first 3rd party player with android auto support when it first came out).

i'll probably get around to revamping it eventually.. but if you take a look at my trello development tracker you can see what type of workload im dealing with with this app

[damman]

No problem. You know. Strangely enough it worked this morning. Back before, I would juggle your app and another app because it was always hit and miss over which one would work that day. I don't think it was the fault of either of your apps because it seemed Google would constantly update Android Auto. Obviously, they probably preferred users used Google Music.

Cross my fingers, things will work well. I really do like the new features you put in there. The sort tag support is nice, the multiple tag support is nice, and I like the added Smart Playlist functions. It has really simplified my process of getting files from my computer to phone in a painless manner tag-wise.

[parttimegeek]

I would also love to see this behavior implemented. The reason I switched to GMMP is because A) Google play music went away even for playing locally stored music files on your android phone, and B) because it allows you to browse by Album Artist, so you can find an album by an artist you like, and play the album without having to create a playlist first.

Where this would be even MORE useful would be with Android Auto, because it could allow me to quickly change to another artist and play an album without messing around much while in the driver's seat.

As it stands, I will now have to create playlists for all the Albums by a given album artist ahead of time using the app on the phone. I have a pretty big library, and this will make the list of playlists pretty unwieldy, not to mention the limitations in how many characters will show up on my 2020 Subaru Ascent infotainment screen through Android Auto.


Thanks all!

[gorman]

Late to the Android Auto party but I wanted to add my considerations on what I see available at the moment in GMMP.

When going to the "browsing menu", one can select Artists, Album Artists, Albums.

Now, both Artists and Album Artists play a shuffled selection of the artist selected.
Albums, on the other hand, allows one to select a specific album and play it in the correct order. But it also presents an A-Z button where one can select the first letter in the title to make browsing easier.

Now, if the aim is to limit the time spent interacting, I think that having Artists/Album Artists lead to a list of the albums available under a specific artist would surely shorten this time, rather than asking users to scroll through a potentially huge list where all albums are listed or, even worse, having to select a letter on a different menu.

I don't see a feature request for this on Trello (the dev has to create it? can't see the option to but I might have missed it) and I don't know whether it would be easy or hard to develop.

But "thinking in clicks". Current situation:

1st click Albums
-- endless scrolling
2nd click to play selected album

or

1st click Albums
2nd click on A-Z
-- scrolling to select letter
3rd click on letter chosen
-- less endless scrolling
4th click to play chosen album

As opposed to my proposal:

1st click Artists/Album Artists
-- some scrolling
2nd click on selected artist
-- some scrolling (depending on number of albums)

3rd click to play chosen album

Edit: I've installed the Desktop Head Unit emulator to try different music apps. Poweramp handles artists the way I am suggesting in Android Auto.

[gorman]

Any chance for this to get some attention?

[GoneMAD]

there are android auto updates planned for 3.6

[gorman]

May 7, 2023 13:06:41 GMT -5 GoneMAD said:

there are android auto updates planned for 3.6

Is there an ETA for 3.6? No problem if there isn't.

I would pay good money to have the option to handle the queue properly (add to queue, play next)... At the end of the day it's ridiculous how limited Google thinks must be when, at the same time, leaving music apps accessible on the phone while using Android Auto. Because then nobody will use the phone to manage the queue, right? I don't do it, out of security concerns. But still...

[GoneMAD]

no. i am no where close to finishing 3.5 even. My android dev time is only a few hour a weeks and split between 2 projects

[gorman]

Ok, thanks a lot for answering. :-)