First impressions, opinions, feedback, questions, feature requests, bugs

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I found Spotube just a few hours ago. I wrote this all up as my first impressions in a few hours. I use Tidal and I'm slowly migrating away from Spotify. Tidal works well for me, I use a firewall to block telemetry, but I'm attracted to the idea of an open source music player. I also don't like that neither Tidal nor Spotify take measures to hide personal info in the app, and there's no way to protect the app using a PIN or Biometrics. I don't expect anything to replace Tidal unless it's actually better, unfortunately I can't see myself using Spotube for the reasons discussed here, but I will definitely keep an eye on the project. It is definitely a well designed app, a lot of work put into it, and aesthetically pleasing. I really hope this feedback helps the developer(s). I want this app to get better!

Here are my thoughts about Spotube. Issues 1-3 are the main reasons why I won't be switching to Spotube. Since there's a lot here, I can't be certain other users haven't discussed the same issues in other posts.

1. What does logging into Spotify do, what functionality does it give you that you wouldn't otherwise have? I logged in with my Spotify account, but it doesn't appear to do much except give you the ability to use Search, and shows your saved artists and albums. It doesn't actually use Spotify as an audio source. I don't see the point in this. The ability to search for music is crucial, but using my spotify artists and albums is unnecessary in my case since I use Tidal. I'm now relying on two proprietary backends but I'm also giving a third party app access to my Spotify API key, which could reveal personal info and could risk compromising my account, both from hackers and from Spotify (Spotify credentials get blocked after connecting Spotube to Spotify account #725). Also, Spotube suggests it is a Spotify client but doesn't use it as an audio source. It's really just a Youtube client. EDIT: Here it suggests you can stream audio from Spotify. I don't see an option to switch to Spotify in Settings > Playback > Audio Source.

2. Is using Spotube while logged into Spotify against Spotify policies? Can it get you banned? This should be addressed in the readme regardless, and explicitly in the app if true. If Spotube can risk getting your Spotify account banned, it shouldn't even present that as an option. Apparently it can.

3. Poor responsiveness and buggy. I believe it's mostly network related. Selecting new songs, shuffle, automatic playback...it's slower than expected, playback sometimes stops, transition between songs take a while, often songs won't play at all. This isn't just once every few hours, this is a constant problem. I have a fast download speed and a high end phone, there should be no bottlenecks on my end. There could be a lot of reasons for this, but I think the problem here is Youtube and probably out of scope for the project. I'm guessing.

4. There should be an option to view all albums for an artist. Next to "Albums", there should be "View All". I don't want to scroll sideways through the albums, especially when I can't see all the information about that album, some are live albums, some are singles and EPs. Full albums and singles/EPs should be separated (if that's possible).

5. Downloading songs should present the user with some feedback about that download (without having to check Downloads tab). A loading icon would be better than nothing; a progress bar, at the bottom of the page or a "Downloading" and "Download successful" notification would be ideal.

6. In the Downloads tab, songs that failed can't be cleared. I'll have a bunch of failed downloads with no way to clear them. Solutions include swiping right or left to clear that specific download, or tap and hold for options, or a trash icon. They were eventually cleared after a while but not sure what initiated it (I didn't restart the app).

7. In the Downloads tab, clicking on the exclamation icon for failed downloads should reveal a popup description that explains why that download failed.

8. Downloads that succeeded, but were downloaded before I changed the Downloads folder to a new location, can't be removed. It shows a tick icon next to the song in Downloads, but isn't available in Local Tracks.

9. Entries should be sorted by newest first in Downloads.

10. Download fails, see Can't download .m4a File into Music Folder #649

11. Download stuck for a long time even when storage location set to Documents. Song stuck on "Querying info...". Some songs don't do this.

12. There should be some way to mass remove failed downloads manually.

13. Selecting new accent colors doesn't apply the change unless you restart the app. Would be nice to compare them without restarting app each time.

14. The "pick color scheme" window is deceiving. Initially I was trying to select the smaller colored squares, it took me a moment to realise they were color palettes and you could scroll down.

15. In Settings > Audio Quality, "high", "medium" and "low" should reveal more specific information. A simplified text next to each (eg. 128kb), and an Information icon could show more details. I'm in favor of showing the user as much information as possible about the audio metadata.

16. Details about the audio quality for a song should be shown in Details window.

17. Is there a tab for History (previously played songs)? If not, that should be a priority to implement, as I consider that to be a crucial function.

18. Clicking on artist and album in Details window for a song does nothing (expected behaviour is to open in browser). Clicking Youtube link and Stream URL opens in the browser as expected.

19. The UI for "browse genres" could use an improvement, UI-wise and sorting; not that this is a huge issue but I feel personally offended that Metal is so far down the list and even anime comes before it. In all seriousness, the icons are a bit too large and it isn't too easy to find the genre you're looking for. Multiple sort options would be great. Sub-genres (after selecting the main genre) would be amazing. I'm guessing these genres come from the Youtube API and sorted using their algorithm, and some of the genres themselves are a bit odd (Netflix? Kids & Family?), so perhaps separate real music genres from "moods" and "decades". The genre quick selection on the home page should be manually customisable.

20. Using the app without logging in, in the Friends section there are three friends, and it just says "name" in each profile. I'm guessing these are placeholders of some sort. Since I'm not logged in, there shouldn't even be a Friends section. Also, selecting the profiles sometimes shows track information, "A Track Name". Other times selecting the profile does nothing. Other times, I get a blank page with this error: "Error Code: 400, Invalid ID".