Smart Shuffle vs PlayingAlbums
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
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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
PlayingAlbums
This app shuffles songs within playlists by album, allowing you to listen to entire albums sequentially. It integrates with Apple Music and iTunes Match, and playlists can be shared across devices. Users can choose to use the standard Music app player or a separate mode.
- Shuffle songs by album
- Integrates with Apple Music/iTunes Match
- Cross-device playlist sharing via iCloud
- Option to use standard Music app player
- Separate player mode available
- Supports multi-disc albums
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If you love music albums, you will listen to an album, then another album, then another...... All your songs or songs in the selected playlist will be shuffled by album. Songs in the selected playlist will play on devices that use iTunes Match or Apple Music, even if they are not downloaded on the device, as long as they are online. Playlists shuffled by albums can be shared with your own devices via iCloud. If you do not use either iTunes Match or Apple Music, the order of songs will be synchronized as long as playlists are synchronized between your devices. If you are a user of PlayingAlbums for macOS, you will share its settings for PlayingAlbums for iPhone. You may not want to listen to songs serially of an album with multiple discs. Disc 2 is sometimes completely different from disc 1. By default, the playing information (playback counts, etc.) will be integrated since PlayingAlbums uses the same player as the standard “Music” app. If you would not like to integrate the information, a new mode has been implemented that does not use the same player as the standard “Music” app. The application does not include any songs or other content; you must first create a playlist, either by importing from a CD or by using a subscription such as Apple Music. The screen shots shows a playlist created by subscribing to an album from Apple Music.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Smart Shuffle at 68% against PlayingAlbums's 0%. Smart Shuffle also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 9 months). PlayingAlbums's advantage is price ($0.99 vs $1.99). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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 PlayingAlbums $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Smart Shuffle ships an update every 2 months, PlayingAlbums every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on September 4, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Smart Shuffle | PlayingAlbums |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 3.8 (36 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 67.8% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 36 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 9 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Spudfish Software | Yuki Kuroki |
Customer experience
Smart Shuffle
PlayingAlbums
In-app purchases
Smart Shuffle
No in-app purchases
PlayingAlbums
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Smart Shuffle free?
Is PlayingAlbums free?
Do Smart Shuffle or PlayingAlbums have ads?
Which is updated more often, Smart Shuffle or PlayingAlbums?
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