I’ve been looking for some form of music player replacement for my Android device since the demise of Google Play Music and the subsequent failure of YouTube Music to adequately replace it. Two contenders have emerged - local files on an SD card accessed by Samsung Music for music and Spotify for Podcasts, and Plex. While the mainline Plex amp leaves something to be desired, Plexamp is simply amazing. It’s without doubt the best looking music player available, and the amount of options available is nothing short of brilliant (especially the ability to specify that only downloaded versions of files should play).
With that being said, I wanted to post some ideas that I think could really bring Plex the win here.
Standalone Android:
-I think the idea of preferring downloaded files to play should be taken one step further; give those of us who are data conscious the ability to prevent streaming of files entirely
-We need a “Download All” option
-If the device is disconnected from internet connectivity, the My Library and Search tabs become nonfunctional, forcing navigation to take place entirely through the Downloads tab. For those of us with large libraries, this can be tedious.
-It seems in options that you have to specify whether you want the app to draw content from your server OR Tidal OR Plex Podcasts. If that’s not the case, the option is confusing; if it is, I’d like to see all three integrated simultaneously.
Android Auto (I know it’s a new feature but it needs the most work)
-While most Android Auto capable apps display the standard Back-Play-Forward interface at the bottom of the screen when AA is booted, Plex does not. It doesn’t have a menu option for “Now Playing” either, meaning if you want to pickup where you left off listening, you need to start playback from the phone, which really defeats the purpose of AA (and depending on the situation, can be impractical or dangerous)
-Voice control is broken, near as I can tell. If you ask Google Assistant to “Play (album) by (artist),” it will attempt to do so, however you will be informed “Sorry, something went wrong. Try opening the app on your Android device to continue.” Again, purpose defeating, impractical, dangerous.
-The above wouldn’t be so much of an issue if the “Search by letter” option was complete. Recently, “Searching by letter,” and selecting the letter “R” brought up a list of available artists which cut off at “Robert Duncan.” This is a big problem, because “Rush” probably gets the most playback of any artist in my music library. Further investigation revealed strange gaps, such as “Nirvana,” not displaying any albums when selected, and multiple downloads missing from the Downloads tab on AA when searching though it.
I’ve got a little more than 2 months left on my Plex Pass trial before I have to decide what I want to do regarding my subscription. For now, I’ll continue to maintain downloaded files with Plexamp and local files with Samsung Music. I hope that I can decide to maintain usage of Plexamp when my trial expires! Keep up the good work!
