Comparison

TapTunes vs Smart Shuffle

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

TapTunes

Explore your music collection through interactive visual displays and gesture-based controls. Rediscover forgotten tracks and enjoy a more intimate connection with your audio library.

Highlights
  • Visual album browsing
  • Gesture playback controls
  • Home screen widget
  • Seamless audio switching
  • Personalized settings
Features
Read full description

With TapTunes, you will experience your music collection like never before. Touch, tap, drag, shake, swipe, pinch ‒ you've never been this close to your tunes! By presenting albums visually in a random order, TapTunes brings you much closer to your music than you'd ever get by scrolling through an alphabetical list of artist names. You'll soon find yourself rediscovering old favorites and listening to those forgotten gems lurking around the edges of your music library. After all, if a picture is worth a thousand words, why let words alone do all the talking for your music? Features * Five unique browse displays * Gesture playback controls * Home screen widget, app icon choices, light and dark themes, Shortcut support * Seamless switching between music, audiobooks, and podcasts * Highly personalized, with over 40 settings and counting * And more...

About

Smart Shuffle

This music player brings back the classic album shuffle experience, playing songs in their intended order within randomly selected albums. It offers extensive customization for album selection and playback control, including CarPlay and Apple Watch integration.

Highlights
  • Album shuffle playback
  • CarPlay integration
  • Siri Shortcuts
  • Cloud album access
  • Enhanced album selection & filtering
  • Apple Watch interface
  • Sleep mode timer
Features
Read full description

Do you miss the old "Album Shuffle" on your Apple device? Here at Spudfish Software, we did, so we did something about it! Smart Shuffle: The Album-Centric Music Player Smart Shuffle brings album shuffle back to you, randomly shuffling your music and playing it back one album at a time with songs selected in the order that the artist intended. If you love albums, Smart Shuffle is the only music player you need! Version 4.0 also includes a host of new features to help you further take charge of your album collection! CARPLAY COMPATIBLE!!! - Tell Smart Shuffle to re-shuffle, play next album, play previous album, or view the next albums in your queue from our new CarPlay interface! SIRI SHORTCUTS - train Siri to tell Smart Shuffle to Shuffle Albums, Play Next Album or Play Previous Album PLAY ALBUMS FROM THE CLOUD - Smart Shuffle can now access your albums in the cloud, seamlessly adding them to your selection list. Have a bad data plan or spotty internet connectivity? Just turn off this feature from the Settings app for Smart Shuffle. ENHANCED ALBUM SELECTION - Sort your albums by Title, Artist, Genre, Composer, or Release Date - Filter the selection list to refine your selections. You can create an album playlist to match your mood by filtering on any combination of: - Artist - Genre - Grouping - Composer - Rating - Play Count - Date Added - Decade Released - Minimum Song Count - Inclusion in one of your Playlists - Cloud Availability - Filter by Selected to see only the albums you have currently selected for shuffling, or those that you haven't selected yet. - Start Album: Select the first album to play, then pick random albums thereafter. - Split Multi-Disc Albums: treat each volume of a multi-disc set individually APPLE WATCH INTERFACE - Control the playback of your album selections on your Apple Watch. Play or pause the current album, skip to the next album, or re-play the previous album. SLEEP MODE - Touch and hold the play/pause button for a second to request Sleep Mode - Smart Shuffle will automatically pause after 30 minutes, an hour, or after the current album. You'll get lulled to sleep listening to your favorite albums without missing a bunch of them while asleep! ANNOUNCEMENT AND DELAY - Smart Shuffle now comes with settings to announce each new album before it is played, and to delay for up to 30 seconds between albums to let you cleanse your musical palate. RESPONSIVE TO TOUCH EVENTS - Double tap the screen to play/pause music - Swipe left/right on the album art to skip to the next/previous album - Swipe left/right on the now playing information to skip to the next/previous song - Swipe down in the pull-tab to show your entire shuffled album queue. Swipe up to view the currently playing album art. - Touch the progress bar to change songs - Touch the time remaining to show the time of day that the currently playing album will end. Touch again to return to time remaining. - Touch and hold the progress bar to get a list of songs to choose from - From the Selection Screen, touch and hold an album to play it first in your shuffled list REMOTE CONTROL EVENTS - In addition to the usual remote control events (play/pause, next song, previous song), Smart Shuffle can now skip to the next/previous album using the "skimming" remote control events. Double-click and hold the remote control on headphones, or touch and hold the forward arrow on the remote control panel on your lock screen. If you quit the application, your music keeps playing. Open the Music app, and your Smart Shuffle mix is retained. Pop right back into Smart Shuffle to skip albums or select new albums to mix. Happy Shuffling! See our website for additional information, FAQ's and contact us to report bugs or request new features. http://spudfish.com/smartshuffle

Screenshots

TapTunes4 screens
Smart Shuffle3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Smart Shuffle at 3.8 against TapTunes's 3.1. Smart Shuffle also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and update cadence there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

TapTunes costs $1.99 and Smart Shuffle $1.99 up front. TapTunes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Smart Shuffle asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Smart Shuffle holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 3.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 23 and 36 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of TapTunes's written reviews are positive against 68% of Smart Shuffle's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TapTunes ships an update every 4 months, Smart Shuffle every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
TapTunes versus Smart Shuffle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTapTunesSmart Shuffle
Price$1.99$1.99
Rating3.1 (23 ratings)3.8 (36 ratings) — better
Positive reviews60.0% of reviews67.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2336 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDavid BlundellSpudfish Software

Customer experience

TapTunes

All ratings23 ratings
Positive52.2%
Neutral8.7%
Negative39.1%
Written reviews180 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral10.6%
Negative29.4%

Smart Shuffle

All ratings36 ratings
Positive63.9%
Neutral16.7%
Negative19.4%
Written reviews115 reviews
Positive67.8%
Neutral12.2%
Negative20.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

TapTunes

One-time1
  • Stacked Mode$0.99
None

Smart Shuffle

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is TapTunes free?
TapTunes costs $1.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Smart Shuffle free?
Smart Shuffle costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, TapTunes or Smart Shuffle?
Smart Shuffle is rated higher. TapTunes averages 3.1 out of 5 from 23 ratings, while Smart Shuffle averages 3.8 from 36 ratings.
Do TapTunes or Smart Shuffle have ads?
Neither TapTunes nor Smart Shuffle shows ads.
Which is updated more often, TapTunes or Smart Shuffle?
TapTunes ships an update every 4 months, and Smart Shuffle every 2 months. Most recently, TapTunes was updated on October 31, 2026 and Smart Shuffle on November 1, 2026.

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