Listen: The Gesture Music Player 2.1.1
A gesture-based player that lets you use it without looking at its UI too much, Listen aims to make a great companion for joggers, drivers, or people who prefer not to stare at their screen constantly. However, it’s not as easy and intuitive as the description may peg it to be.
UI is like a work of art
Listen is so beautifully designed that many of you will stick with it purely for the looks. The app launches to a very handy guide that takes you through the motions (pun intended), and you’ll be listening to your favorite tunes in no time.
The iconography is iOS 7 all the way, and the animations are just brilliant. Taping makes this water-ripple effect that creates a zen feeling.
In typical fashion, MacPaw tries to land an agreement with the user to receive ads and offers. You can say no and just move on.
Confusing functions
Listen loads up one of your songs automatically and tells you to “Tap to Listen.” It’s a little counter intuitive, because you might want to listen to something else. In fact, the first time you use it you don’t even know what you’re tapping to listen.
The gestures seem fairly simple at first, but start using the app and you’ll soon learn you’ve forgotten most of them. It isn’t clear how much you have to swipe to get the desired effect sometimes.
However, navigation is pretty swift, and the settings pane is a full left-swipe away from the library view. It even shows up partially to let you know it’s there in case you missed it. Very thoughtful.
The player is indeed useful in situations like driving or jogging, but you’re still left with the hassle of having to learn the gestures. This depends on your own abilities to memorize this stuff, so your mileage may vary.
Annoyances
Although it’s free, Listen is full of MacPaw advertisements, nag screens, and encouragements to sign up for stuff. It’s hardly the experience we’d rate as “free” on our chart. Nevertheless, there are no in-app purchases and you can use it indefinitely. Just be careful what you tap on. Lots of things in there take you out of the app and over on MacPaw’s site.
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Player
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0/5
Hits & Misses
hits
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misses
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Bottom Line
Design / UI10
One of the best designs we’ve seen not just for media players, but for any app that we’ve reviewed. MacPaw really has this one nailed, like in most of its apps (including the company’s desktop products). |
Function7
We’d love to rate Listen higher here, but the fact of the matter remains you still have to work your mind a little before you can fully enjoy the app. It’s not counter intuitive, but it’s also not the just-works solution that the Ukrainian studio advertises. |
Security8
The sharing feature takes a screenshot (without your permission) and whisks it away in an email that promotes the song to your recipient while also advertising the player. |
Battery7
Because of its nifty graphics (and perhaps other things under the hood), Listen draws substantial amounts of power from your iPhone. |
Price8
Listen is full of ads, nag screens, and encouragements to sign up for stuff |
Compatibility8
It’s fully compatible with all iOS 7 devices and doesn’t go below that firmware. However, few devices on iOS 6 could handle the workload (considering our battery drain results). Also, no iPad version. |
You might like it even more than us
Specifications
- price:
- Free with ads
- current version:
- 2.1.1
- reviewed version:
- 2.1
- developer:
- MacPaw Inc.
- category:
- AUDIO
- os version req.:
- 7.0
- age rating:
- 4+
- in-app purchases:
- Yes.
- hits:
- 558