Music, reimagined: its own navigation bar, a home in the colours of what's playing, and a now-playing screen that moves with the song (Indigen World 0.1.25)

Music in Indigen World has been rebuilt to feel like a place of its own. It has its own navigation bar, a home that takes its colours from what is playing, and a now-playing screen that grows out of the player and moves with the song. The artist pages, search and the little player bar have all been redone too, and the main navigation bar has picked up a few tricks of its own.

What is new at a glance

• Music has its own navigation bar: Home, Search, Artists and Library, each keeping its place while you visit the others.
• A new Music home: a header in the colours of what is playing, with a band of Kassena wall-painting along its foot that moves while the music plays.
• A new now-playing screen: it grows out of the player bar, takes the song's colours, and lets you swipe the cover to change song.
• Read along: open a song's words full screen, in large type you can make bigger or smaller.
• New artist pages: their face flies in from the circle you tapped, and the page takes the colours of their picture.
• A livelier player bar: swipe the song's name to change song, and long titles scroll so you can read them.
• Audiobooks too: everything here works the same way in Audiobooks, with Readers in place of Artists.

Music, with its own navigation bar

Open Collection → Music. The tile grows into the Music screen, and the navigation bar at the bottom of the app does not disappear: it stays where it is and turns into Music's own, with four places:

• Home: what is playing, what you came back for, the people, and every song.
• Search: find a song or an artist by name. Before you type, it shows the kinds of song and the artists to browse.
• Artists: everyone in the archive, the busiest first, or A to Z.
• Library: what you have played recently on this phone, and, for members who download, the songs you keep on the phone.

Each place keeps where you were while you visit the others. Tap the place you are already on and it goes back to the top. The back button takes you to Home first, and from Home it takes you back out of Music, and the navigation bar turns back into the app's.

A home that takes its colours from the music

The top of the Music home is painted in the colours of the song that is playing, picked out of its cover. Before anything has played, it takes the colours of the newest song in the archive. Along its foot runs a band of triangles and diamonds in the manner of Kassena wall painting, the same pattern the Learn tab uses. While music plays, the band slowly walks along. When the music stops, so does the band.

Under the headline is the newest song, with a round play button. If that song is the one playing, the button turns into small moving bars, and tapping it pauses. Beside it are Play all and Shuffle.

As you scroll, the header folds away into a coloured bar with the channel's name, so the way back is always at the top. Underneath are the shelves:

• Jump back in: what you played recently. The song that is playing shows moving bars over its cover.
• Artists: the people in the archive. Whoever is playing now wears a slowly turning ring of colour.
• Browse by kind: coloured tiles for the kinds of song in the archive, such as songs for a particular occasion. A tile opens everything of that kind.
• New in the archive: the ten newest songs.
• Every song, as a list you can read, with each row sliding gently into place as the screen opens.

Now playing, grown out of the player

Tap the player bar and the full player grows out of it until it fills the screen. While it is open, the bar steps out of sight, so you no longer see the same song and the same buttons twice.

• The song's colours. The background is the song's cover, softly blurred, with a gentle glow behind the cover while it plays.
• Playing or paused, at a glance. While the song plays, the cover sits forward. When you pause, it steps back.
• Swipe to change song. Throw the cover to the left for the next song and to the right for the one before. The new cover slides in from the side you threw it.
• A seek bar you can see under your thumb. Touch it and it thickens and shows the time you will land on. Let go to jump there.
• Buttons that answer. Play and pause turn into each other. Previous and next give a small nudge in their direction. Shuffle and repeat show a dot when they are on.
• Pull down to close. Drag the screen down and it folds back into the player bar.

Read along

If the archive has the words of a song, they are on a card under the controls. Tap Read along and the card opens into a full screen of words in large type, in the song's colours. Use the buttons at the top to make the words bigger or smaller. For somebody learning Kasem from a song, the words can now be as large as they need to be.

Up next, at the top right, shows the songs that follow, with the one playing marked by moving bars.

Artist pages

Tap an artist anywhere in Music and their picture flies from the circle you tapped into the middle of their page, which is painted in colours taken from that picture. The large round button plays all of their songs, or pauses them when they are already playing, and it rides up into the top bar as you scroll, so it is always one tap away. Shuffle sits beside their name.

The player bar

The player bar that follows you around the app has also been refreshed:

• it takes a soft wash of the song's colours, and draws its progress line in them;
• play and pause turn smoothly into each other;
• swipe the song's name to the left for the next song, or to the right for the one before;
• a title too long for the bar slowly scrolls across it while the song plays, so you can read all of it;
• minimised to its bubble, the player now shows a thin ring of progress around the edge.

The main navigation bar joins in

The navigation bar at the bottom of the app has a few new touches:

• Each place has its own movement. When you choose it, Explore's play button turns, Learn's cap is tossed, Community's speech bubble pops, Collection's bookmark flips, and Contribute's plus turns a quarter.
• Where the music lives. While something is playing, a tiny moving meter sits on the Collection icon, so you know which way to go for the rest of it.
• A Music tile that says what is playing. In Collection, the Music tile shows the song that is playing, with moving bars, instead of the count.
• Tiles that open into their page. Every tile in Collection now grows into the page it opens, and shrinks back into place when you return.

Movement that follows the music

Everything in Music that moves on its own, such as the moving bars, the band along the header, the glow behind the cover and the ring around an artist, moves only while music is playing. Pause, and the screen is still. That keeps Music calm to look at and gentle on your battery.

Screen readers are looked after too. Songs, artists and buttons all say what they are, the seek bar can be moved ten seconds at a time, and an artist's circle says when one of their songs is playing.

How to get it

1. Open Google Play and search for Indigen World.
2. Tap Update. If you only see Open, the update has not reached your phone yet; try again later.
3. To check, open your profile, go to Settings, and look at the Indigen World row at the bottom. It should say Version 0.1.25 (34).

Then open Collection → Music, play De N Lei — Come Learn Kasem, and tap the player bar.

Not here yet

• Liked songs and playlists. The Library shows what you played recently and what you keep on your phone. Saving songs and making your own playlists comes later.
• Words that follow the song line by line. The archive does not yet record when each line is sung, so the words are there to read along with, not timed.
• Reordering what plays next. Up next shows the queue and lets you jump to any song in it, but not rearrange it yet.
• iPhone. This update is for Android.

Tell us how the new Music feels in daily use, and what you would like it to do next.