The new SiriusXM for Android app adds many new features that make SiriusXM more interesting for people who listen to a lot of podcasts and use streaming services like Spotify and Google Music.
The new SiriusXM for Android has a more streamlined look, sports better navigation, and offers better discovery. The big features are: TuneStart, Start Now and the new five-hour audio buffer. Check it out.
This is me listening to MLB network. The navigation is more obvious, the buttons for stopping, starting, and pausing audio are more prominent than before, along with the new “StartNow” button. If this navigation was the only improvement to the SiriusXM for Android app, this would still be a big change.
This is the new category navigation screen. Notice the audio controls are still visible.
This is the new channel navigation view.
This is the new look of your favorite channels.
This is something new to the SiriusXM for Android app, the ability to “favorite” individual shows. If I press “Harry Nile” I get the following screen:
From this screen I can set up alerts so I don’t miss my favorite shows. And if I’m a little late getting to my show? Why, I just press the “Start Now” button and I can hear the show from the beginning.
While the new SiriusXM for Android app is a vast improvement from the old app, it has a few drawbacks.
To sum, here are this app’s three big new features — TuneStart, StartNow and the tune buffer. TuneStart is a feature that starts the song over at the beginning when you first tune to a channel. StartNow is similar to TuneStart, but is show based. You can start your stream over at the beginning of the show if you don’t want to miss anything. The new five-hour audio buffer is for most channels. Previously the SiriusXM for Android app was the same as radio — you could only hear what it was playing at the time.
This addition of the five hour buffer allows you to do more time shifting than ever before. It’s much like the DVR for your TV, but for every channel, not just the current one.
It doesn’t seem to work in landscape mode on the phone, and it doesn’t support every tablet like my Transformer Prime. Because it’s for Android I was able to side load the app onto my Prime and it works fine so far. I was not able to successfully run the app on my Logitech Revue, however. The five-hour buffer is not for all channels due to contractual reasons with various content providers like Clear Channel. The app still lacks a proper Android widget.
Warts and all, these new changes to the SiriusXM for Android app have caused me to use it more than ever. I’ve already started listening to shows I normally missed because of my busy day. If you’re not already a SiriusXM subscriber, you can try out the service for free for seven days.
Google Play Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sirius
