Idea

Christopher_Dittmann avatar image
Christopher_Dittmann suggested

Alexa, Show me my recently played songs.

Unfortunately, Alexa can't do this right now. This is somewhat disadvantageous, especially if you have had Alexa shuffle music from a favorite artist, and you want to go back to a song you hadn't heard before. What was its name? If you weren't near the screen, or listening through a dot or echo, you can't get back to it easily.

It turns out that the list of recently played Alexa songs is available on the Recently Played list in the Amazon Music app. It's a couple of levels down the tree and takes a bit of hunting, but it's there. I would suggest putting it in the Alexa app as well, either under Lists or under the Books, Music ... tab.

musicamazon musicalexa lists
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9 Comments

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Mel avatar image
Mel commented

I second that motion! You used to be able to tap something in the Alexa app and you could see the list of songs that had been playing while you've been listening. Now all I see are what's currently playing with no way to find the history of songs just played. I used this all of the time...Amazon, please bring this feature back to the Alexa app! Thank you!

Also, refering to the original post comment, I don't see where the music history is on the Amazon Music App either. There is no "recently played" on that app, or a "tree" to follow to hunt for the history that I could find...there is however, a "recents" to tap, but it just says I don't have any purchased music. I am listening to a Pandora station on my Alexa dot, so perhaps this does not pertain.

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newuser-cbd3b185-a7d1-4299-83e7-4d1177cadf61 avatar image
newuser-cbd3b185-a7d1-4299-83e7-4d1177cadf61 commented

Yes. Amazon. Please make it a lot easier to know what's just been played. Why? Cause I'm gonna buy the song. From You.

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YCST avatar image
YCST commented

Since the time (long while back) the Alexa mobile app was revised to allow you to "talk to alexa" via the mobile app, the "recently played list" got buried, but it's there still.

Recently Played Music List (playlist or similar song lists: To find it, you select (expand) the Currently Playing page, which by default is a collapsed toolbar at the bottom of the current page in the mobile app. In the collapsed view it shows (on the left) the current music playing, the "group" or device playing it, and a play/pause and Volume/Mute option. Click to expand it to full page.

The full page view of Currently Playing shows album art, play controls, and at the bottom line on the left is an icon which resembles a paragraph (read: list) with an arrow inset (read: playlist). Click it, you get the music history. From this playlist view you can select an item to play it again, .

Recent Activities (all session history): This is more obvious to find since you choose the main app menu, select Activity. Okay....Duh. Yet, my request to Amazon would be to make Activity page a view either in an app or a menu option in Amazon Music controls on Fire TV/Stick so that the big screen could be used to review this and control a Whole House AV sound system like a console.

Recent Music or Pods History List (by Provider): Again, somewhat obvious once you locate the page for this, but I'm including this in my post to provide a more complete "help" answer about recently played. From any page in the Mobile App, the bottom navigation bar shows the "talk to Alexa" icon in the center...plus menu options for Home, Communicate, Play & Devices.

Choosing the Play icon brings you to a Music & Books "home page", again a resource that was more obviously in the original application top-level menu options. Selecting the Play icon to get to here, and it provides a variety of ways to select music or reader content.

What's really cool is that at the top is a "Recently Played" content list which is indexed by "the source" application (Read: Amazon Music, Pandora, Tune-in, etc.). What I really like is that, rather than showing only the _last_ content item for that source, you actually see each specific content history of instances you requested recently. In other words, if earlier today I bounced across 3 different Pandora stations, I can literally see those 3 choices in that history in this app location. Likewise, during the day I may use Tune-in to play NPR, WSJ News Pod, WWOZ radio, etc. and each/every selection is listed. (This is the equivalent list to what reviewing the Activity page I mentioned above as my request to expose to Fire TV.)

A subtle value of what I describe in the last paragraph above? I may listen to different Pandora stations in the course of my day while at home, or my car, or on my mobile...and some are menu clicks, other voice requests, etc. This index provides a place to see, across all devices and services I'm using, what selection I made to get it to play and what "syntax" Alexa would recognize to repeat that. If you want to build Alexa Routines to initiate playback on Harmony or by voice, you can use these listed details to view the exact syntax of what you should ask to be played in order to repeat that request as a routine in the future.


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newuser-1c795cc0-76b2-44dc-af57-847cf1604a42 avatar image
newuser-1c795cc0-76b2-44dc-af57-847cf1604a42 commented

I just posted the following question to Amazon. I saw a very long reply up there, but I need to limit my time right this moment, so, apologies.
"My Activity in my Alexa App shows a full history, but my Recently Played doesn't show anything at all. I would like to re-visit or even just recall what commands I gave to my Echo Dot" Thanks


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newuser-05fe322d-b31c-41c2-86cc-275c3d7cab3c avatar image
newuser-05fe322d-b31c-41c2-86cc-275c3d7cab3c commented

I heard a song earlier, I'm searching for a HISTORY playlist from my computer. What's the easiest shortest way to find out the name of a song and artist?

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dh706 avatar image
dh706 commented

CUT and EDITED this from the really long post above, thanks to YCST... Here is the short answer How to Find Recently Played Songs...

"To find it, you select (expand) the Currently Playing page, which by default is a collapsed toolbar at the bottom of the current page in the mobile Alexa app. Click to expand it to full page.

The full page view shows current song album art and play controls, and at the bottom left is an icon that looks like a list. Click it, you get the music history. From this playlist view you can select an item to play it again." Yes! It worked.

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newuser-a9136919-b288-4428-a89f-58b259896442 avatar image
newuser-a9136919-b288-4428-a89f-58b259896442 commented

On the iOS Amazon Music app you can view your recently played songs list by clicking Library on the bottom toolbar. It should default you to the Recents option on the top toolbar, if not, click Recents. You will see Song History, click that and it will bring up the list.

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Bill avatar image
Bill commented

@dh706 that used to work, but now all I get is a blank screen with a back button in the upper left. I am using Apple Music as my music source and on an iPad with iOS 15, so perhaps that has some bearing on the issue.

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Bill avatar image
Bill commented

@dh706 that used to work. Now all I get is a blank page with a back button in the upper left. I am using Apple Music for the music source and I’m on an iPad with iOS 15, so perhaps that has some bearing on the problems with Amazon Alexa.

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