BluRemote - BluOS Controller 4+

Bought for the customizable widget - disappointed that it isn’t ready for prime time. The “customizable” part is basically being able to hide things like the player name, shuffle, etc. But no option to actually show the song being played. The BluOS Controller works better as a widget. The one thing that is nice is access to the pre-set stations in widget form. The player itself is a bit clunky looking, 90% of the surface of it is your pre-set radio stations. If the player widget is improved to show what is playing and the actual app is setup a bit better (and the volume control improved so it doesn’t jump in volume so quickly) it could be worth the price…

Update v1.8.0: Added new "Now Playing" widgets, a shortcut action, a Siri command and a mini player in the macOS menu bar. Hope this improves your experience!
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Thanks for your review. Let me provide some details:

- regarding the volume control, you can change the step size in the settings, and even 1 % steps are possible

- I had “show the current song” widgets running in tests for some months but was never satisfied, because the OS nowadays limits the refresh rate drastically. It works as long as you use the app, but does not update if you control the player directly or with other remotes. I can release such a widget with a manual refresh button, for all the cases where it does not refresh automatically.

- regarding the “90 % of the app shows presets”, yes, it is focused on presets for now, but I will provide other content, like browsing the local library, soon

Regards, Christoph

This app is a breath of fresh air for anyone who has suffered through Bluesound’s bloated and cumbersome-to-use BluOS controller app.

Its clean and straightforward interface is perfect for putting the focus back on Bluesound’s excellent sounding components and away from the needless fumbling of the BluOS app.

You’ll still need the BluOS app for setting up certain things such as Presets, which I use for streaming music from a SSD and the individual component volume controls are not quite as convenient to use. It’s close but still needs some refinement since speakers have to be selected individually for volume control unlike the BluOS app, where you can adjust the volume for any networked device from one list.

All in all, this is an excellent choice if you want to spend more time listening to music than scrolling through an over-engineered app.

Thank you very much! Better multi device and player group support is on the roadmap. Best regards, Christoph

This app has minimal function. It allows to select a player, store some favorites and adjust the volume. That is it. No ability to select a radio station or music source. This app does not serve any purpose next to BluOS 4.

The app is designed to be minimalistic and distraction free – for everybody who does not like the complexity of the BluOS Controller app. Browsing the music library and selecting streaming services is on the roadmap. In the meantime you can use presets to achieve this. Thanks for your review. I hope you will like future versions of BluRemote. Christoph