4.7 in particular had a major Tidal fix which was needed because Tidal had made server-end changes which the old streamers couldn’t read. This was introduced ages ago mind, well before Covid anyway.
But you definitely should do the 4.7 firmware update.
Best
David
Quite apart from.any connectivity issues from app to devices on Android, the UI is full of annoyances and bugs. It’s just not very usable.
The grid view of albums cycles between 2,4 or 6 albums per column. At 2 per column you lose too much screen estate. At 4 per column you see truncated album titles. Why not cycle through showing 3 like most other music apps which allows full album title to be shown?
Naim…
Others…
The app also has a habit of showing artwork for a previously played album, intermittent but repeated. Here you can see I’m listening to Jumbotown but it’s showing artwork for the Silhouettes…
In its defence, I really like the Naim app. I have very rarely had any issues with it. FWIW I’m also pleased with the n-serve app.
Well, actually I like the Naim app so much I notice that I use Roon less and less. The app gives me direct access to Internet Radio and TIDAL, which I use most of the time.
Also no issues here with the Naim app on several iOS devices.
I think this thread is mixing two things. The OP was discussing the UX design, but many are discussing actual problems/bugs.
I suspect Naim, like many companies I should add, don’t employ a UX designer and leave it up to the developers, usually front enders, or graphical designers. Result is often mixed quality and inconsistent behaviour depending on who worked on which bit.
The iOS Naim app has gradually won me over, partly because it’s free and the fact I have learnt how to use it better, understanding some of it’s quirks.
I certainly didn’t feel this way at the start. You’ve just got to give it time and be patient with its ongoing development.
I tried Roon and I can see why forking out for that might be desired by some, but for me I’m happy to stick with what I’m gradually getting to know.
One thing I really like about the Naim app is that is hasn’t become infected by annoying UI behaviour : popping up to tell me about some great new feature for example.
I run into the artwork problem too now and then. Solution for me is clear artwork cache and give a reindex on the mediaserver.
David, thanks for your advice, updated to 4.7, needed anyhow I guess, but problem persists. Frustrating.
I fully agree with the topic starter, the app is simply lagging behind the quality of the Naim gear … my app crashes at least once per day …
Just as an idea, with Chromecast you don’t need to use the Naim app.
I never use it. Takes to much time to find the phone, then open the app, etc…
With Chromecast you can either stream directly from the Streaming source app (Spotify, Deezer, etc) or you voice control from Google Assistant (“OK Google play Vivaldi on the Nova” or 'OK Google play Radio xxx on the Nova"). I do all by voice command.
This is simply not true. Some issues are network issues, but not all of them by far.
In the OP, none of the issues sounds like network:
Clearly you’ve not used the Audirvana app then. Compared to that, the Naim app is the Bently of apps.
For whatever reason, I’ve not had the issues mentioned above on multiple devices. I wouldn’t discount the networks ability to trip up the UI but it is true that the app is highly dependent on the UPnP server configuration too. Thinking of images and search functionality here.
Not sure if this is a reply to me. Whether the Audirvana app is worse is of little consequence to users of the Naim app, and I think we can agree that the Naim app should be good irrespective of how bad the Audirvana app is.
One example from the above, “The preview list isn’t particularly helpful, so you end up selecting ‘More’ most of the time.” This is a consequence of the preview most of the time not showing what you need, so you first need to click More. To get to More, you first need to scroll down. Only after clicking more, you can sort, for example. This is 100% a question of UI design and 0% a network issue.
All I mean is that “bad” is subjective in comparison to other things. Of course, the best of anything could still be bad though how this is judged without good examples is hard to say.
A lot of complaints over the years were related to performance and responsiveness. And Naim largely came through on this. It tends to fly with a large library of albums appearing instantly. Functionality is another matter though.
You might have to walk me through this preview list issue. I’m not sure what this is. I’ve never seen a preview or a more button. It just finds all my music and opens what I want. What context do a preview appear in? We might just be thinking of the same thing by different names.
Regarding the responsiveness, it may well have been worse in the past. Whether it works now depends, I guess, on details. E.g., I use Qobuz and I have what Naim considers a lot of album favorites (2000). The app on Android is unusable for up to 10 seconds every time you wake up the mobile and every time you switch between apps. Very annoying, e.g., you cannot use the volume buttons during this time. For this issue, I was also told by forum members that it is my network. Also not true (as I kept telling them), and Naim’s software people have acknowledged the issue.
As for the preview, go to e.g., the Albums tab while being logged into online streaming. The albums that you see are the preview (which shows, I believe, only the recent additions, but this is not obvious unless you already know. Edit: In particular when you are new to the Naim app, all your Qobuz favorites are considered new, if I remember correctly, so it is not clear what it is that it shows in the preview; it becomes clearer as you add albums later), and there is no sort menu anywhere (I circled the top right in the screenshot as one might expect it there, and because it will be appear there after some steps):
To see the sort option and more from your library, you need to scroll down, where you will see a More button. Needing to do this (scrolling down to find a hidden button) is also somewhat non-obvious:
Then, after you click More, it shows all your favorites and you are allowed to see the sort menu (in a rather tiny way):
(screenshots from Android)
An example of really poor UX and functionality in the Naim app:
I have a large upnp server attached, so i want to search for an artist in that server:
Only to find out that the app doesn’t search in the attached server, it shows the text “No results”.
Now it does apparently find results in iRadio, in this case only one (The Higherside Charts), but for some reason it won’t show that result directly. You will need to click on SHOW to find out what it found, and whether it’s relevant.
That’s just annoying and makes the search more or less unusable (for me at least).
BubbleUPNP searches through my upnp server just fine:
Another thread that may be of interest:
@Suedkiez Interesting. That would suggest they’ve not nailed management for online libraries yet. Which is a shame. I use almost exclusively iRadio and local streaming. Management of the local library is mainly just image cache with functionality handled by the UPnP server (in my case Asset).
@litemotiv Hmm this works for me. I go to albums (which are on Asset) and start typing and it gives me results. iOS and Android. I just don’t know what to tell you. Have Naim Support responded to you?
I think an easy fix would be to mention that what you initially see is a preview (like, mention “latest additions” somewhere). Then make the More button visible without having to scroll for it. And make the Sort menu visible immediately; it can automatically switch from Preview to More if it needs to.
