New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on January 17, 2022) follows:

With the Google Chrome browser as its principal user interface, the Chrome OS is based on Gentoo Linux. That being said, Google recently released Chrome OS 97 for those having a Chromebook.

The new update brings an updated Gallery app that allows users to play their favorite music from within the app.

chromebook-chromeos

It brings in a new fullscreen experience along with a ‘Now Playing’ queue and the option to rewind or skip the song by 10 seconds.

However, users who updated to Chrome OS 97 are now reporting that the new Gallery app music player is missing some core functions such as the repeat button and the ability to shuffle the playlist.

While users say they do appreciate the much-needed visual overhaul, some say that the old music player was better in terms of usability. Many are also wondering if there’s a way to bring back the previous version.

Chrome-OS-97-Music-player-missing-features
Source

I’m not sure if this change is just on my end or if everyone is stuck with this now, but they seemed to have removed the old music player and replaced it with a new one on the Gallery. I’m not a big fan of this new one at all, it seems much more counterintuitive than the old one. I have two main gripes about it, first off is that you have to manually select every single music file yourself instead of just playing everything in one folder. Now that’s not that terrible but I have to wonder why they did this, if you wanted to have different “playlists”, then you could just put every song into different folders like I’ve been doing for the past four years.

They went on to say,

It seems like that’s how most other music players operate anyway. Second of all is the fact that there no longer seems to be a shuffle feature. On a music player. What kind of a change is that? Why are they removing quintessential features that were already there to begin with? Even YouTube playlists have a shuffle feature, a music player doesn’t? This is the most bare-bones a music player could possibly be and I’m struggling to see how this is an improvement to the old one.

As it turns out, there is a temporary workaround for those wanting to revert to the old music player on Chrome OS 97.

It involves heading over to chrome://flags and changing the “Media App Handles Audio” option from Default to Disabled.

Chrome-OS-97-Music-player-missing-features-temporary-workaround
Source

We hope Google includes adds the repeat and shuffle function to the new music player in a future update since the aforementioned flag is set to expire soon.

As always. we’ll keep an active track of the developments on this one and update the story, as and when required.

Update 1 (March 15)

01:37 pm (IST): Users who are unhappy with the new music player in Chrome OS 97 are now being asked to star the issue in the bug tracker to get Google’s attention.

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Google Section so be sure to follow them as well.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Anurag Chawake
1373 Posts

My fascination with technology and computers goes back to the days of Windows XP. Since then, I have been tinkering with OS, mobile phones, and other things. When I am not working on anything, you will find me enjoying video games on some Discord server.

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