Smart Shuffle vs StarTone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Album shuffle playback
- CarPlay integration
- Siri Shortcuts
- Cloud album access
- Enhanced album selection & filtering
- Apple Watch interface
- Sleep mode timer
Read full descriptionHide 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
StarTone
This music player allows you to rate songs with stars and love statuses directly from your device's library or audio files. It offers convenient rating options via widgets and Apple Watch, with iCloud sync for your ratings.
- Rate music with stars and love statuses
- iCloud sync for ratings across devices
- Rating support on Today Extension and Apple Watch
- Play and rate common audio formats including Flac and MIDI
- Embed lyrics and support for .lrc files
- Smart playlist creation
Read full descriptionHide full description
StarTone is a music player which can play songs in your "Music" library and audio files stored in your device, including common format like mp3 and lossless format of Flac, also it support MIDI playback and support customize sound bank. StarTone was came out for rating music with stars and "love" statues. The rating bar stands out in the main page, so it just need one touch to make the rating, no need to open many submenus. In addition, StarTone provides Today Extension and Watch app, so you can also make music ratings on the Widget Screen and your Apple Watch. StarTone now also equips some handy features to make the music listening easy and happy. Please try to play with them. Features: 1. Quickly set star and love ratings for music on your local library, Apple Music or audio file. 2. Sync music ratings with other devices or iTunes via iCloud on the go. 3. With iCloud Sync enabled, love / dislike rating are available. 4. Support rating on today extension (widget). 5. Share music ratings with family and friends. 6. Support embed lyrics, .lrc lyrics file and online lyrics. 7. Support automatically play when launch the app. 8. Support star music rating on Apple Watch. 9. Play and rate audio files of general format and Flac lossless format. 10. Support MIDI playback. 11. Smart playlist for both Music Library and audio files. 12. Play audio files on Apple Watch. 13. Scheduled music playback.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: StarTone at 4.1 against Smart Shuffle's 3.8. StarTone also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 2 months) and price ($0.99 vs $1.99). On review sentiment, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
Smart Shuffle costs $1.99 and StarTone $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
StarTone holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 36 and 16 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 68% of Smart Shuffle's written reviews are positive against 67% of StarTone's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Smart Shuffle ships an update every 2 months, StarTone every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Smart Shuffle | StarTone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 3.8 (36 ratings) | 4.1 (16 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 67.8% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 36 — better | 16 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Spudfish Software | 乃波 黄 |
Customer experience
Smart Shuffle
StarTone
In-app purchases
Smart Shuffle
No in-app purchases
StarTone
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Smart Shuffle free?
Is StarTone free?
Which has better reviews, Smart Shuffle or StarTone?
Do Smart Shuffle or StarTone have ads?
Which is updated more often, Smart Shuffle or StarTone?
Other comparisons















