Jam Jam

Release notes

What’s new in Jam Jam

Every public release of Jam Jam, most recent first: what actually changed for you, in plain words. Internal work and minor tweaks are left out on purpose.

  1. 3.13.0 Android

    No more ads, and proposals on your songs in one gesture

    • The app no longer shows any advertising.
    • Proposals on your songs now come as a single card: accept or refuse in one gesture.
    • Lyrics alignment picks up where it left off when you reopen the app from its notification.
    • Audio scrolling in the songbook is smoother, and the current chord is easier to read.
  2. 3.12.8 Android

    Unlimited detection on your phone, and notifications that name the song

    • Chord detection on your phone is unlimited: only sending a file to our server counts against your allowance.
    • In the songbook, chords are drawn at the start of their syllable, and you can align the chords on the audio with a before/after preview.
    • Notifications name the song, and “View song” from a like opens that song.
    • Audio added to an imported song is offered to its author after analysis, and lyrics alignment no longer keeps phrases invented by the transcription.
    • Composer is no longer offered in the mobile app.
  3. 3.12.2 Android

    Account and Premium in Settings

    • A new section in Settings brings together the Premium purchase, restoring purchases and deleting your account.
    • It is available even when you are not signed in.
    • Assorted reliability improvements.
  4. 3.11.1 Android

    All barred chords, and official YouTube playback

    • Play a whole song with barre chords and no capo: choose “All barred” in the player’s fingerings.
    • Positions are chosen together to limit moves along the neck, and the choice is kept for each song and instrument.
    • Songs can be played with the official YouTube player, and the app guides you to add the audio file.
  5. 3.11.0 Android

    A guided Composer, an improvisation backing and other versions of a song

    • Composer is now guided: pick a mood and an accompaniment, hum or play a melody note by note, then listen.
    • New: an improvisation backing track to play over, and “Vary the instruments” to hear the same notes with new sounds.
    • The score shows simultaneous notes, and you can export one MIDI file per track.
    • Songbook: search the web for another version of a song to update its chords.
    • Your sharps or flats choice is now respected everywhere.
  6. 3.8.7 Android

    Notification settings, multi-voice melodies and better imports

    • Notifications are grouped in four families, with a “Stay in touch” screen where you choose what you receive.
    • Melodies play all their voices together, and a continuous tablature shows the lyrics under the notes, with a new Lyrics tab.
    • Solo tablatures without lyrics can be imported, a song can be searched from a YouTube link, and lyrics-only import from Genius is more reliable.
    • Suggested usernames are now an adjective and a noun in the language of the app.
    • Swiping between the main tabs is now off by default; turn it back on in Settings under Appearance.
  7. 3.8.0 Web

    Share menu, stems, and a redesigned Conversion page

    • A new Share menu lets you copy the link, share to an app, share as text, or send it to an account you follow each other with.
    • The feed now shows when someone edits a song or a playlist.
    • Stems (separated voice and instruments) get their own icon and volume controls, with video export track by track.
    • The Conversion page is redesigned, and a published song page on the web now scrolls as one continuous page.
    • Lyrics can now be imported from Genius, and audio processing is more reliable.
  8. 3.7.1 Android

    A more reliable Apple sign-in

    • Signing in with Apple now retries automatically after a temporary failure instead of showing an error.
    • The Sign out button now responds correctly even with the keyboard open, on iOS.
  9. 3.7.0 AndroidWeb

    A redesigned chord card, and a more reliable karaoke

    • The card that opens when tapping a chord is redesigned to be more visual and easier to use.
    • The Songbook now offers a unified melody view and Audio menu for the whole song, and the Melody tab is reachable outside of editing.
    • Karaoke is more reliable and now offers a mix between vocals and instrumental.
    • Several looping bugs are fixed (a verse that kept looping past its end, a title shown twice on a published song page).
    • The web “From a link” import now accepts more unknown hosts.
  10. 3.3.6 AndroidWeb

    More reliable song opening from a shared profile

    • Opening a song from Discover on a profile that publishes many songs no longer failed with “Unable to load this song”; that is fixed.
  11. 3.3.5 AndroidWeb

    A display bug fixed in the Songbook

    • Stray characters could slip into an imported title or artist name and block a song from opening; that is fixed.
  12. 3.3.4 AndroidWeb

    Sign in with Apple, and a more polished website

    • Sign in with Apple is now available on Android and the web, and in the iOS beta.
    • Many small visual defects on the website are fixed (profiles, settings, player, home, tools).
    • The Premium star on the avatar and the subscription page text are now readable in both themes.
  13. 3.3.3 AndroidWeb

    A new social model: follow, a feed, and likes

    • A new social model is live: follow accounts, a feed with the activity of accounts you follow, and likes.
    • My profile now shows the same elements as a visited profile, with clickable playlists.
    • The Handpan is now grouped with the Keyboard instead of being a separate instrument.
    • Importing a song now uses a single button with several actions (link, file, search) instead of scattered entries.
  14. 2.32.53 AndroidWeb

    Drum pads everywhere, and real icons instead of emoji

    • Playable drum pads are now available everywhere in the app, not just on one screen, with a new “no preset” option.
    • Instrument icons are real illustrations now, not emoji that looked different on every phone.
    • A MIDI keyboard now transposes itself automatically to match the song’s key.
    • Duplicate friend request notifications no longer pile up in a loop.
    • The last untranslated words in Composer and the Songbook (“auto”, “lead”, “skank”) are translated.
  15. 2.32.52 AndroidWeb

    Pick your speaker and your instrument, from the home screen

    • You can now choose your audio output device directly from the drawer.
    • The visual instrument shown on the home screen can now be chosen right there.
    • A song’s last lines no longer stay hidden behind the chords/fretboard panel.
    • The microphone permission request on first launch is now properly announced to screen readers.
  16. 2.32.49 AndroidWeb

    A metronome in every song

    • A metronome is now built directly into the song view, instead of living in its own separate tool.
    • Karaoke scrolling no longer freezes on a line missing from pasted lyrics.
    • Detected tempo now rounds to the right BPM instead of a nearby wrong one.
    • The built-in assistant now answers in the app’s own language, instead of defaulting to French.
    • An import bug that silently deleted real lyric lines is fixed.
  17. 2.32.43 AndroidWeb

    Faster to open, and fewer snags

    • The app now starts noticeably faster.
    • Some imported PDFs produced garbled, unreadable text; fixed.
    • The “67/50 songs, almost full” message was wrong and didn’t say what to do about it; fixed.
    • A notification saying a friend removed songs no longer opens the wrong ones.
    • A capo was ignored when exporting a PDF unless its instrument was picked first; fixed.
  18. 2.32.39 AndroidWeb

    Dictate your lyrics, followed in any language

    • Lyrics can now be dictated by voice directly in the editor, on mobile and web: one spoken sentence becomes one line at the cursor, with voice commands and a choice of dictation language.
    • An English song was no longer followed by voice on a phone set to French; fixed.
    • A bilingual song is now followed line by line, whichever language each line is in.
    • The paid offer is now consistently called “Premium” everywhere in the app.
  19. 2.32.36 AndroidWeb

    Calibrate your device’s audio delay

    • A new screen (Preferences > Listening) lets you calibrate your device’s own audio latency, on mobile and web.
    • Lyrics and chords now subtract that measured delay to stay in sync.
  20. 2.32.35 AndroidWeb

    Twelve more instruments, honest diagrams, and a tool to play fretless in tune

    • Twelve advanced instruments were added (oud and similar), each with its own chord diagrams and tunings.
    • Chord diagrams for bowed and plucked families (bass, shamisen, sitar) that showed wrong finger positions are fixed.
    • A new precision tool for fretless instruments shows pitch accuracy and finger spacing, in all ten languages.
    • Harp, mallet instruments and steelpan were added, with their own physical diagrams and melody views.
    • The tuner’s reference pitch (A4) can now be adjusted.
  21. 2.32.31 AndroidWeb

    The tuner stopped crashing, and the volume is finally right

    • The tuner could freeze or crash the app entirely; fixed.
    • Volume levels were wrong across the board: drum pads were too quiet, the keyboard’s limiter was disarmed, and the web sounded noticeably quieter than mobile; all fixed.
    • Karaoke used to scroll during the intro, before the first word is even sung; fixed.
    • Automatic lyric sync never triggered on a sheet with no written lyrics; fixed.
    • Editing a friend’s song now shows a quiet banner to choose when to send your changes, instead of a blocking popup or a silent send.
  22. 2.32.24 AndroidWeb

    Your lyrics stay yours, and a proposal can be undone

    • Accepting or rejecting a friend’s proposal can now be undone in one gesture, with no separate history to manage.
    • Online lyrics search now only fills in what you haven’t written yourself; it no longer overwrites lyrics you typed in.
    • A song published on your profile and reported by someone is now removed automatically.
  23. 2.32.18 AndroidWeb

    The menu was unreachable, the drum pads were silent

    • On nine screens, the side menu stopped opening at all, with no visible error; fixed.
    • MIDI drum pads were nearly inaudible because of a volume calculation that crushed most of the signal; fixed.
    • Volume levels were rebalanced across 136 sounds and 68 drum kits; the loudest and quietest sounds in the catalogue were over 40 dB apart.
  24. 2.32.11 AndroidWeb

    Karaoke keeps its controls, and the audio tab stops guessing wrong

    • The Audio tab sometimes claimed a song had no soundtrack when it did, because of a real network race; fixed, with a proper “checking” state instead of a false negative.
    • In karaoke, the overlay (title, progress bar) no longer hides itself by default; a toggle is still there if you prefer the bare screen.
    • A warning saying a lyric line was written more times than it’s sung is removed: it was wrong 22% of the time, and could make it look like a whole verse had vanished.
  25. 2.32.5 AndroidWeb

    Propose your changes to a friend, they decide

    • When a friend has reworked a song of yours, they can now propose their version to you, line by line and chord by chord; you merge or reject, and your own changes are never overwritten. An adopted song can also be linked to another version of the same piece, while staying independent.
    • On web, pausing used to take up to ten taps, because every other tap restarted playback instead; one tap is now enough, even mid-key-change.
    • Grabbing the playback timeline no longer sends you back to the very start of the song.
    • A song that switches language partway through now stays synced all the way to the last line.
    • The Audio tab now scrolls properly, and a trash icon lets you remove a soundtrack entirely.
  26. 2.26.0 AndroidWeb

    A crash fixed, and a soundtrack that finally syncs

    • Starting playback from the top of the Audio tab could crash the app entirely; fixed.
    • The progress bar at the top of the Audio tab always reset the song to the very start when tapped, unlike the one at the bottom; both now behave the same way.
    • A soundtrack dropped on your phone only reached the web once the song was actually published; fixed on both sides, including fetching it from the server when it’s missing locally.
    • Hitting your storage quota now shows a clear message with two ways out: ask for more space, or clean up your own soundtracks via multi-select, heaviest first.
    • The banner showing a friend’s song proposal never appeared, because of a database issue; it’s now visible.
  27. 2.23.0 AndroidWeb

    One way to add a soundtrack, that actually plays

    • The soundtrack options were cut down to what can actually play here, a file or a YouTube video; five links that led nowhere (Spotify, Deezer, SoundCloud, Apple Music, Bandcamp) were removed.
    • On mobile, tapping play on a linked video silently did nothing, the very bug already fixed on web months earlier; it’s now fixed on both.
    • Adding a soundtrack is now one clear step instead of four overlapping screens, and a file and a video can now both be attached to the same song.
    • Choosing between a file and a video is now possible on mobile too; the video option used to be unreachable there.
  28. 2.22.0 AndroidWeb

    Know what you’ll get, before you import it

    • Importing a song now tells you upfront what you’ll actually get, for example “melody only, no lyrics”, before you pick a source, instead of leaving you to discover it afterwards.
    • The referral program is officially open: invite a friend and you both get free days of Premium, with the exact durations shown on the Rewards screen.
    • The lock badge on harmonica, accordion, handpan and kalimba, all free for everyone, is fixed for good: it only ever meant “fixed tuning, pick a key”, never a paywall.
    • Opening a song shared by a friend showed a raw technical name at the top of the screen instead of nothing; fixed, along with the list of songs friends sent you.
  29. 2.21.1 AndroidWeb

    A lock icon that finally means what it says

    • The lock badge on fixed-tuning instruments (harmonica, accordion, kalimba, handpan) used to read as a premium paywall; it now clearly shows you’re just picking a key.
    • In manual Detection, the cross mark for a note you’ve ruled out now reliably shows on all four fixed-tuning instruments, with both a shape and a color so it reads even without color vision.
    • A song’s linked video sometimes never loaded; fixed, and a file and a video can now both be attached to the same song, with a clear choice of which to use.
    • Switching accounts on the same device could briefly show the previous account’s data; that leak is closed.
  30. 2.18.4 AndroidWeb

    A louder keyboard, and a web player that behaves

    • The on-screen keyboard was noticeably quieter than every other instrument; it now plays several decibels louder on ten fingers at once, without distorting.
    • On the web, changing a song’s key could make playback distort and never stop; fixed.
    • On the web, the lyrics transcription tool was silently dropping every word it found; it now keeps them.
    • Pasting lyrics that mixed guitar tablature with text confused the importer; it now tells the two apart, and offers “import as lyrics only” for pasted text.
  31. 2.18.0 AndroidWeb

    Chord diagrams you can trust

    • A hundred and one chord shapes were wrong on the diagrams: asking for E♭ gave you the exact shape of F. They are fixed, and all 374 shapes are now checked one by one before every release.
    • The barre line was drawn upside down: it covered the muted string and missed the treble one. On screen and in exported PDFs alike.
    • The Detection page opens noticeably faster. The Songbook and Composer benefit too.
  32. 2.12.0 AndroidWeb

    Usable with a screen reader

    • The app can now be used with a screen reader: buttons are named and announced instead of staying silent.
    • Note names on the fretboard are readable in both themes: the contrast went from barely visible to fully legible.
    • Muting, pausing or cancelling takes effect the moment you tap, instead of waiting on the audio engine.
    • A PDF whose score cannot be read now gives you the lyrics, instead of a flat refusal.
  33. 2.11.0 AndroidWeb

    Settings you can find, lyrics you can read

    • Settings are now searchable: type “night” or “latency” and the setting appears. Anything you changed carries a dot and returns to its factory value in one tap.
    • Lyrics transcription is far more faithful and up to twice as fast: songs that returned nothing at all now return their words.
    • Detection warns you when a recording is off-pitch, instead of quietly offering chords that are wrong.
    • An import from a link can no longer fail in silence: it tells you what it found, or why it is refusing.
  34. 1.8.0 Android

    Jam Jam lands on Google Play

    • The closed beta is over: the app is published on Google Play for everyone.
    • A subscription taken anywhere (mobile or web) unlocks everything, everywhere.
    • Restoring purchases stays available even when the store catalogue fails to load, and a failed payment finally explains itself.
  35. 1.6.0 AndroidWeb

    Ten languages, and every word rewritten

    • The app is translated into ten languages, subscription screen included: it used to show up in English whatever your setting.
    • More than six hundred texts were rewritten to say what the app actually does, and to drop promises it never kept.
    • Empty screens now suggest what to do next instead of staying blank.