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Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

michaelevensen.com

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Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#21

Post by dsl »

ruddct wrote: post #4

Ah, Soundcloud. One of the companies I should love the most given my usage of it, but hate with a strong passion due to their product and technical bungles. Let's take it from the top: Product (applicable to iOS and web): * Their mobile app and desktop products are, essentially, two completely different experiences. They have not evolved in sync with each other at all. * Listening to tracks I've saved is hidden deep,…

This. Every time I use the Soundcloud app I think to myself "I wonder if I could crowdsource the development of a third-party iOS app..."

Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#22

Post by cr1895 »

Matsta wrote: post #11

Unfortunately, most of the radio shows I listen to are hosted on Soundcloud, and I find the app is incredibly frustrating. * If you stop a song and come back in a few minutes, it has forgotten and goes back to the start of the song. If you leave it for a few hours, it just restarts the app and goes to the homepage, and you have no way of figuring out what you were listening to. * On accounts that update regularly, yo…

>* If you stop a song and come back in a few minutes, it has forgotten and goes back to the start of the song. If you leave it for a few hours, it just restarts the app and goes to the homepage, and you have no way of figuring out what you were listening to

Yes, this drives me mad! I didn't know if this was something only I encountered, but apparently not. In my situation it loses track of what I was listening to in a matter of minutes. Pause music to talk to someone for a bit? I hope I remembered where in the track I was because I'm going to have to search for it again and start over!

That's the other thing...there's no history or queue of music (or, I haven't found it). I end up favoriting things because then it's easier to find again once the app inevitably screws up my listening progress.

I tried searching for a solution (or to see if it was someone's idea of a "feature") but it's a hard thing to describe.

Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#23

Post by audessuscest »

ruddct wrote: post #4

Ah, Soundcloud. One of the companies I should love the most given my usage of it, but hate with a strong passion due to their product and technical bungles. Let's take it from the top: Product (applicable to iOS and web): * Their mobile app and desktop products are, essentially, two completely different experiences. They have not evolved in sync with each other at all. * Listening to tracks I've saved is hidden deep,…

Also no listened tracks history. When you want to find a tracks you listened some day ago but can't remember the title.

Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#24

Post by audessuscest »

cr1895 wrote: post #22
Matsta wrote: post #11

Unfortunately, most of the radio shows I listen to are hosted on Soundcloud, and I find the app is incredibly frustrating. * If you stop a song and come back in a few minutes, it has forgotten and goes back to the start of the song. If you leave it for a few hours, it just restarts the app and goes to the homepage, and you have no way of figuring out what you were listening to. * On accounts that update regularly, yo…

>* If you stop a song and come back in a few minutes, it has forgotten and goes back to the start of the song. If you leave it for a few hours, it just restarts the app and goes to the homepage, and you have no way of figuring out what you were listening to Yes, this drives me mad! I didn't know if this was something only I encountered, but apparently not. In my situation it loses track of what I was listening to in…

Yes !

Mixcloud is far better for this, history, remember where you were in a song, even if you listen other song after.

You listen a mix, want to change and you listen others, when play again the first mix, it plays where you stopped, so great.

Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#25

Post by pawadu »

ruddct wrote: post #4

Ah, Soundcloud. One of the companies I should love the most given my usage of it, but hate with a strong passion due to their product and technical bungles. Let's take it from the top: Product (applicable to iOS and web): * Their mobile app and desktop products are, essentially, two completely different experiences. They have not evolved in sync with each other at all. * Listening to tracks I've saved is hidden deep,…

> Social capabilities don't exist in the app. Inexplicably, it's most of what exists on the desktop product.

and thanks god for that!

Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#26

Post by colemercer »

I'm a PM at SoundCloud and want to let everyone know that this post is very, very old. I believe over 2 years. Difficult to tell from the site though.

That said, the feedback here in this thread is good feedback, so I do appreciate everyone taking the time to write it. Much of will be resolved soon, so keep on the lookout for future updates.

Let me know if you have any specific questions or input.

Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#27

Post by shostack »

colemercer wrote: post #26

I'm a PM at SoundCloud and want to let everyone know that this post is very, very old. I believe over 2 years. Difficult to tell from the site though. That said, the feedback here in this thread is good feedback, so I do appreciate everyone taking the time to write it. Much of will be resolved soon, so keep on the lookout for future updates. Let me know if you have any specific questions or input.

Glad to see you guys are listening and open.

Guess I'll toss in my own gripe. I played an album for my newborn daughter to put her to sleep. Some nice soothing acoustic guitar. Yet when it reaches the end it just auto plays some other loud rock track instead of stopping or giving the option to loop. Made my own playlist of the same tracks from the album hoping that would stop the offending track from playing at the end, but no such luck.

Am I missing something stupid? I can't even figure out how it is selecting this other random track to play at the end of my playlist.

Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#28

Post by johnyfav »

I'm a dj in my part time and I feel that this app should be one of my most used - it's not though. The timeline always is irrelevant, the app crashes, the caching of music is annoying (I often drop network connectivity on the commute to work and the app will freeze, forget where I'm at or drop out like seconds in to the lack of network connectivity - despite having a good connection for the last 5 minutes.)

I can't see who liked or shared my mixes or tracks. Comments are impossible.

And the search annoys me. I'll search for a friend as the timeline is so poor and the auto complete must go on popularity and not even consider my friends...

I could go on but I feel that many of the points have been mentioned before...

Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#29

Post by colemercer »

shostack wrote: post #27
colemercer wrote: post #26

I'm a PM at SoundCloud and want to let everyone know that this post is very, very old. I believe over 2 years. Difficult to tell from the site though. That said, the feedback here in this thread is good feedback, so I do appreciate everyone taking the time to write it. Much of will be resolved soon, so keep on the lookout for future updates. Let me know if you have any specific questions or input.

Glad to see you guys are listening and open. Guess I'll toss in my own gripe. I played an album for my newborn daughter to put her to sleep. Some nice soothing acoustic guitar. Yet when it reaches the end it just auto plays some other loud rock track instead of stopping or giving the option to loop. Made my own playlist of the same tracks from the album hoping that would stop the offending track from playing at the e…

Thanks, we try to talk to users as much as possible.

What you're referring to is the autoplay of related tracks. Great feature for background listening - not so much for your use case :)

You can turn it off by going to the options screen. Go to the "person" icon tab, then the 3 dots button on the top right. De-select "Autoplay related tracks".

Any other feedback and I'd love to hear it. You can always DM me on Twitter @colemercer as well, I keep it open.

Re: Building Soundcloud's iOS App; in-depth retrospective

#30

Post by [deleted] »

colemercer wrote: post #26

I'm a PM at SoundCloud and want to let everyone know that this post is very, very old. I believe over 2 years. Difficult to tell from the site though. That said, the feedback here in this thread is good feedback, so I do appreciate everyone taking the time to write it. Much of will be resolved soon, so keep on the lookout for future updates. Let me know if you have any specific questions or input.

[deleted]
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