I am trying hard to get used to Plexamp on desktop but aspects of the UI remain frustrating.
There is no persistent top window bar which would normally host Close, Minimize, etc… plus that bar is a visual cue of where to grab the window and move it.
Here’s a screen cap of the top part of my Plexamp for Windows. If I want to grab the window to move it, I MUST click on the top strip in between the two lines. There is no visible cue for this and the strip is a lot narrower that a normal window’s top bar. It makes grabbing the window to move it more work than it should be. At least make the whole title text area grabbable so we have a visual cue!
And if I am playing something, all the bottom UI disappears. If I want to go back Home or browse more music, I must first dismiss the album view with the down arrow.
UI elements which are interactive, like the band/album text or the starts, also offer no affordance–they don’t highlight when you point at them, giving you a clue that they are interactive.
And why aren’t the stars selectable? Why do you have to click them to open another panel with stars in it?! (And there is no way to un-rate something, ack!)
I can learn to use it, I am sure. I could knuckle down and get a triple doctorate in Plexamp. That isn’t the point. I get wanting a “clean” design but if Plexamp was any “cleaner” it would be impossible to use instead of merely difficult to use.
I have rambled on but in summary:
Give Plexamp a persistent top window title bar OR otherwise make it easier to grab and move the window without needing to remember where the tiny invisible grab zone is.
Plexamp is one of the best mobile apps and one of the worst Windows programs I’ve used.
I understand it’s a wrapper around the mobile application but there’s not even a title bar that the org brushes off as “design choice” i.e. product owners not wanting to provide pc support. Even a simple toggle for an unstyled, always on title bar would be the bare minimum that takes very little development effort. And before another Plex employee states it’s not possible, it was stated to be possible here: Plexamp Desktop Player Window Controls (minimize, maximize, exit) - #2 by MovieFan.Plex
I keep going back-and-fourth between Plex HTPC and Plexamp on my HTPC because both are terribly designed and fall far from an efficient user interface.
These probably won’t get many votes but most of the benefits will come from things that only need a little bit of work (window decorations and persistent nav bar) so hopefully it will be considered anyway.
It seems 0 care was made for plexamp to be used on non-mobile devices.
no window controls
basically no conventional keyboard shortcuts, (no way to return to previous page/state without awkwardly going moving your mouse to a corner of a windows, instead of the usual ALT+ARROW or even BACKSPACE
It’s like i’m using an android emulator, why even bother shipping this as a desktop app
I agree. Apps that don’t conform to UI standards are annoying, to say the least. Those standards exist to create a uniform interface for the convenience of the user.
Even apps whose designers insist on disregarding the users’ convenience for their misguided aesthetics at least include an ‘Exit’ command hidden in a menu somewhere. Plexamp doesn’t even have that.
Hey I was going to create some similar topic but I guess I’ll post here
Firstable plexamp is a great mobile, touch screen friendly, music player, really great job on the mobile app. it’s awesome.
The current “desktop” version is like OP said, same as an android emulator running the mobile app on windows. This cause much troubles to understand the software on desktop having to guess much things throught touch gestures and missing some key features such as maximize / minimize / close, moving the window easely and adjust volume inside the app (those three are really the most basic needed features). The current desktop version is sadly unusable compared to using plex web UI or other desktop media players.
I understand the simplicity of developing one software and exporting it to multiple platform without having to change anything (like official announcement tell us on plexamp website), but the difference in UI/UX between desktop and mobile has to be considered to be different because… well because it is actually different.
I hope desktop experience can be improved to at least the same level as plex web ui and hopefully same or better than spotify desktop version wich I was using before plex and IMO has everything we need to navigate library/play music on desktop.
One last thing I could say is that desktop has much more screen space than mobile, it can easely fit the player / bottom settings bar and music library simultaneously without having to navigate between those 3 inside one window.
I hope this post can be usefull to everyone and thank you for such great app plex is developing, it is really appreciated to have control over our media library with a professional streaming server + apps combo, it just need some more developement to make it perfect for plexamp
From searching the forums I know that the Plexamp desktop player intentionally omits window controls for “aesthetic” reasons, but I believe this functionality would be very helpful to have. I am horrible at remembering keyboard shortcuts and I believe myself and other users would benefit from having window controls available.
Currently whenever I want to close Plexamp I start by trying to click in the top right like I do for EVERY other application I use. I then realize there isn’t a button to close it. Then I need locate Plexamp in my task bar, right click it, and then click close. This isn’t that much of a hassle, but it confuses me for a bit every time and it would be a great quality of life improvement to have this basic feature.
Its rarely a good idea to sacrifice functionality for aesthetics, but if you REALLY want to avoid having any extra elements on the screen, then I think you should only make it render the buttons when the mouse is near the top right corner of the screen. For example we start off with a completely standard Plexamp desktop window with a minimalistic aesthetic.
This solution would also work for the windowed player as well. There is already a bar above the album artwork/visualizer for people to grab the window and let them move it around. Why not also add buttons here when the mouse is near it?
This approach may also finally allow – in combo with RBTray or MinimizeToTray – to unclutter the task bar from the unnecessary plexamp icon. Applications that tend to run all day and (kind of) in the background – like, say, music players, should have an option to not be shown in the taskbar.
I would love to see basic standard Windows controls in Plexamp, too. Desktop users are used to doing things with a mouse, so the lack of these controls is jarring.
Along these same lines, I’d like to see a volume control in the UI as as well as pause/play and skip controls in the preview that pops up when you mouse over the Plexamp taskbar icon.
Add me to the list of those wanting to see the standard windows controls to min/max/close app.
Also, how are you supposed to return to the main interface once you enter the “Back to / Up Next / Related” screen? EDIT: Oh, there is a bug. If the window’s height is too short, you can’t see the down-arrow control to return you to the currently playing song.
Otherwise, I very much enjoy having Plexamp on Windows. It is much better than the standard Plex app for music.
I wanted to add to the chorus of users would like some menu controls for the Plexamp window. I am using it on a MacBook Pro and it’s very annoying to have to not be able to pick my music and then hide the window as you would normally expect to be able to. Plexamp is the only application on my entire MacBook that requires me to use the top menu, right click menus in the dock or keyboard shortcuts to hide it. I don’t need it to be a chrome frame around the window but a built in button to minimize would work just as well for me. The omission of this feature is totally bizarre, even weirder to see people have been asking for it for two years.
+1 for standard minimize/close/maximize controls on the desktop version of Plexamp!
Me too, while doing other work on my Macbook, I usuallly start playback and then minimize the music application.
@elan could you have a look into this? I’m happy to be fully back into the Plexamp world after a bumpy LMS endeavour, but would still like to see the standard Mac window controls in the top left please
FN - F to go fullscreen however, doesn’t. Would look great in my dual screen setup!
I think it would be nice to be given the option to show/hide the normal window controls. And also to implement fullscreen possibility + the extra options shown when hovering over maximize button: tiling / moving between displays…
On my MacBook, I do have a utility running called “Magnet” which does a nice job of mimicking window snapping like on Windows, including maximizing an app when dragging it to the top of my screen. It works as expected with Plexamp, however, a maximized application window will still have rounded corners so they have a tiny bit of the desktop background peeking through + the menu bar is still visible. So it’s not a perfect alternative.
