Kirk McElhearn takes you through the Apple Music sharing interface.
How to share Apple Music songs, albums, and playlists
Kirk McElhearn takes you through the Apple Music sharing interface.
I must have come across dozens of Apple Music “how-to’s” in the past week, and while I appreciate the informative articles, I can’t help but think that an app that plays music shouldn’t be so complicated that it requires dozens of articles to figure out.
I’ve been using Apple Music for the past week or so and I like some of the features, the availability of music, and even Beats 1 radio, but everything is just too complicated. Too many modes, too many menus, too many times hitting the back button, too many “hidden” features or menus, not to mention the frustration of trying to sync music from my MacBook but retain the Apple Music playlists I have created. Much like iTunes, Apple Music – and especially the iPhone app – is a cluster-F of features.
For a company that used to be known for great UI and UX, the mighty have indeed fallen.
It’s not so much that the UI/UX is that complicated. Users are just getting lazier. Nothing outlined in these “How-to” guides is anything someone couldn’t figure out within 2 minutes of actually using the app.
Lazier? I’m not sure I agree, and I don’t think many of the features are self explanatory at all. For example, even after doing it a few times, I still have to guess at the right sequence of taps to add a song to the Play Next list, and I still end up adding entire albums somehow. Sometimes the option just isn’t available and I’m not sure why. Same thing with adding a song to a playlist. Another example is if I’m in a search, it can take 4 clicks to get back to the main screen (New, for example.) On the iPhone itself, on the other hand, I know that if I click the button it’ll take me from wherever I am back to the home screen. Very simple and intuitive.
Maybe it’s just me, I and know I’ll get used to it, but trying to navigate all of the modes (For You, New, etc.,) playlists, radio stations, albums, and songs feels convoluted and is not the delightful experience that I (used to) expect from Apple software.