Android music players

[trepetti]

Hi all. I am going to move from iPhone to Android, and I want some advice about music players. I use a Sena SMH10, so all I need to do is push a button and tell Siri to shuffle this playlist, or play that song. All the music is on my phone, so I do not need to use my data plan to listen to songs.

So I want to move to Android, but I need to have the same features, namely:

Songs stored on the phone
Able to play playlists, artists, albums or songs using voice commands

Can i do this in the Android world? Will the phone come with an app to do this or do I need a 3rd party app?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[elus1ve]

The voice control experience varies greatly from one brand to another within the Android world. For example, Samsung uses their s-voice, Motorola tweaks the Google Voice etc. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worst. In general, most should be using the vanilla Google Voice with Google Play Music, which works well.

I have been using multiple Senas with multiple Android & iphone handsets over the last few years and have been enjoying voice control over music and navigation among other things. My music was initally local then moved to cloud but that didn't change the voice control on Google Voice. For the brands I have tried, here is the list of the best voice integration to the worst:

1) Motorola - They really nailed the voice control and the tweaks they made to Google voice made the experience other bluetooth so much smoother. It is the only one i know that will allow you to read all your notifications and respond over voice. The rest can do it partially and is cumbersome.
2) Vanilla Google Voice (Sony, Nexus etc) - It works well.
3) Apple - Works fine but found the recognition to be so so and the navigation to be quite poor.
3) Samsung - You have to use their software for it to work ok - s-voice and music player. It works but not as good as Google voice. Pretty much on par with Apple Siri.

Whichever one you choose, use the music player that comes with the handset. The voice control over music will be much better. The voice control get finicky if you start getting 3rd party music player even though Android allows you to do whatever you want. Also stay away from 3rd party voice control, they are not worth it.

I have settled on vanilla Google Voice and Google Play Music. Found it to be good for my needs and allows for a large choice of handsets.

 

[FinalImpact]

I cant speak to the specifics of the voice intepation, but will simple add that in order to stop the iTunes madness, BUY your music as MP3's so it is yours forever and plays on anything, NOT just Apple products!!!

Power Amp on Galaxy S7 (which takes Great pictures btw) or WinAmp on the pc which combined with CDeX both will convert any music format to MP3.

Hopefully you have them as MP3s already and don't have to convert. But there are tools and plugins out there if neex be.

 

[Motogiro]

I use Power Amp on my Droid I don't listen to music while I ride but it all does work well with my Motorola Turbo as well as voice commands. My mp3 files play whenever where ever.

 

[gnyce]

I used google music, pandora, amazon music... all fine, but I do little voice control. Latest android OS has 'glove mode'... (Settings, Display...) so if I need to, I can press a a button or two if needed (but certainly I try to avoid if at all possible - and yes anything else means I pull over)

 

[elus1ve]

Here are features i use through voice control. Phone stays in pocket or bag.

- switch playlist
- build playlist based on song or artist
- find businesses or address and initiate voice navigation
- check traffic to destination
- check weather forecast for the region

On the moto, i used to read any sort of messages coming in, sms whatsapp, facebook etc. Only did quick reply as i didnt trust voice recognition for longer ones. It would send truly hilarious messages when its too complex. Could also check battery. Highway speed also makes the voice recognition iffy.

Good Voice control through sena has been a major factor in choosing a phone since i started using it.

 

[trepetti]

I cant speak to the specifics of the voice intepation, but will simple add that in order to stop the iTunes madness, BUY your music as MP3's so it is yours forever and plays on anything, NOT just Apple products!!!

Power Amp on Galaxy S7 (which takes Great pictures btw) or WinAmp on the pc which combined with CDeX both will convert any music format to MP3.

Hopefully you have them as MP3s already and don't have to convert. But there are tools and plugins out there if neex be.

All my 6500+ songs are MP3s, either ripped from my CD collection or purchased / converted. This is the reason that I want a voice-activated music player that will play songs stored on the phone. So no Apple madness here.