Braided Playlist vs Patch & I/O
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Braided Playlist
This app seamlessly merges individual music playlists into a single shared queue, ensuring fair rotation of songs from each contributor. It facilitates shared listening experiences for families and friends, reducing decision-making time and fostering connection through music.
- Fair turn-taking for songs
- Apple Music integration
- Clean lyrics enforcement
- Smart shuffle rotation
- Flexible group management
- Siri and shortcut support
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The music's on, everyone's happy, and nobody spent five minutes arguing about what to listen to. Braided Playlist takes the playlists everyone has already put together and weaves them into one shared queue. Each person's songs rotating in turn, automatically and fairly. When you're ready to go, you're a tap or voice command away from music everyone actually wants to hear. The road trip is just a road trip. Dinner is just dinner. No one's lobbying for their playlist, nobody feels ignored, and you're not the DJ. It's also quietly something more. When you and your kid each have songs in the queue, music becomes something you share rather than negotiate. You hear what they're into. They hear what shaped you. A song comes on and there's a story behind it or a question. Those small moments have a way of adding up. Key Features: * Fair turn-taking: Every playlist gets equal time, automatically. * Apple Music Integration: Works with playlists you already have and you can send braids to the Apple Music player Queue. * Protect your Apple Music history: Setting to prevent music started by Braided Playlist from impacting your Replay, or recommendations.† * Enforce Clean lyrics: Settings enable automatic replacement of explicit songs with clean versions or omitting them completely.‡ * Smart shuffle: Rotation order is preserved. Favours less recently played and newer tracks. * Flexible groups: Add or remove playlists mid-session without losing the flow * Siri and shortcut support: Play favourite playlist combinations, add / remove playlists, shuffle, or skip hands-free. Try "Braid [Favourite name]", "Add [playlist name] to braid", "Shuffle braid", or "Next song in braid" Download Braided Playlist. Spend less time deciding what to listen to and more time actually together. †Requires iOS 26.4+ ‡Requires tracks to be labelled explicit in Apple Music; clean substitutions require an Apple Music subscription
Patch & I/O
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Input list, patchbay and stage plot in one app. Type the sheet and the signal flow diagram draws itself, and the app tells you when a mic that needs phantom is sitting on an input that cannot supply it. One show is one project. Fill in the channel sheet, lay out the patchbay, draw the stage plot, and print the paper you hand the crew — all in one app. ■ I/O LIST CH · SOURCE · PICK UP · STAND · REMARKS, the way the sheet looks on site. Live and recording need different columns, so they are separate kinds — recording shows PREAMP, INSERT and DAW TRACK as well. Mics and stands are counted by model into their own list. No counting when you pull gear from the store room. ■ WHAT IT CATCHES - A source that needs 48V phantom on an input that cannot supply it - Phantom reaching a ribbon mic or other gear it can damage - A speaker-level output going into a line input - The same channel number used on two rows - Connector families that do not mate, so an adapter is needed ■ SIGNAL FLOW The sources and mics you typed become the diagram. Identical models are merged and counted (x4), and tapping one channel follows just that path. Chains that do not fit a channel sheet — outputs and monitors, clock, power — are drawn by hand. Drag block to block to connect them, or draw the line with Apple Pencil. ■ PATCHBAY 24, 48 or 96 columns. Draw a segment and the jacks in that range get names and numbers; normalling is set per segment too — full normal, half normal, thru. Label strips print at actual size. That is the paper you cut and slide into the bay window. Jack pitch differs by model, so you measure and enter it, and the sheet carries a ruler mark to prove your printer did not scale the page. If it is not 100 mm, print again. Note: the default pitch (9.5 mm for a 48-point 1U bantam bay) is a reference value. Measure your own bay before printing. ■ STAGE PLOT Place, rotate and resize drums, amps, wedges and stands. Put things on risers, and attach channel numbers from the I/O list to any symbol. Draw the venue's standard layout once, then copy it for each show. You can mark it up with Apple Pencil (view-only on Mac). ■ ON PAPER I/O list, patchbay sheet, label strip, signal flow, stage plot — all export as PDF. Long channel counts split across pages, and when the inputs overflow they flow into two columns so you use less paper. ■ LEARN (ALL FREE) Photographs and pin tables for nine connectors: XLR, TRS, TS, bantam, RCA, Speakon and DB25. Cable wiring diagrams, and a practice mode where you connect the pins at each end yourself. The things that catch people out on site are written down — such as how to handle pin 3 (cold) in an insert Y-cable. ■ WHAT THE FREE VERSION DOES - Build and view every screen. No limit on channel count - Two each of: live projects, recording projects, patchbays, diagrams, stage plots - PDF export works (with a watermark) - All of Learn - iCloud sync is free too. Change devices and everything is still there The lifetime unlock removes the document limits and the watermark, and adds CSV import/export and actual-size label strip printing. It is not a subscription. Buy once, and it opens on your iPhone, iPad and Mac under the same Apple Account. ■ FROM THE MAKER Built to use on the job. If something is missing or wrong, tell me.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Braided Playlist at none against Patch & I/O's 1. Patch & I/O's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 4 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Patch & I/O sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Braided Playlist asks for nothing beyond the download.
Braided Playlist ships an update every 4 weeks, Patch & I/O weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Braided Playlist | Patch & I/O |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.5 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.5 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Shawn Caza | HYO SEOP LEE |
In-app purchases
Braided Playlist
No in-app purchases
Patch & I/O
- Lifetime Unlock$11.99
Questions
Is Braided Playlist free?
Is Patch & I/O free?
Do Braided Playlist or Patch & I/O have ads?
Which is updated more often, Braided Playlist or Patch & I/O?
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