Flowvi.be Bulletin

Version 1.7.5

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Block artists from playlists: You can now block an artist from a playlist to remove their songs and keep the selection focused on what you want.
Better energetic & party playlists: Song selection for all energetic and party playlists has been improved so the results match the requested mood more closely.

Version 1.7.4

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Playlist description editing: You can now change the description of your playlists directly from the app.
Fixed a bug that breaks the "describe a mood" feature on iOS 26.4.

Version 1.7.3

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Explicit content filter: Songs marked as explicit are now clearly labelled. You can also turn on a filter in Settings to exclude explicit tracks from generated playlists.
Persistent player settings: The app now remembers your repeat and shuffle preferences between sessions.
Favourite songs: You can now mark songs as Favourites directly from the app.
Updated mood playlist templates: Mood playlist templates have been refreshed with new improvements.
Fixed a bug where the wrong song could be played if a playlist contained unplayable tracks.

The iPod Wheel

Konstantin — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

How it started

One of the core features of the app is to be able to quickly regenerate a mood playlist. Imagine you're making a playlist for your daily commute, workout or a focused study session - you can quickly request the app to put together a playlist with the desired duration.

A recent update to the app adapted the controls for controlling the playlist size and this is how it looked:

The Idea

Responding to me trying to show-off layout changes, a fan of the app on Mastodon posted:

Cursed idea: replace the buttons with a facsimile of an iPod jog wheel

So why not...

iPod Wheel

For those of us who remember the iPod, one of the most iconic aspects of the device was the clickwheel. There were multiple iterations of the design but my favourite was the Mini which I had in high school:

While functionally this was going to remain a picker component, I wanted to somehow incorporate the look of the iPod wheel. In trying to picture how this would work, I also realised it would be an interesting technical challenge as well.

The initial list of features I thought were important:

It should be big enough so one doesn't have to aim too much (which is a big drawback to the original +/- picker)
Haptic feedback
At least as fun to use as it is to build

That last point was supposed to be my persona guardrail so I don't spend too much time on it, but more on that later.

Iteration 1

The first version was just a couple of circles and basic math for handling touch events. It was enough to get a feel for how this may work within the app and also it helped me refine the look and feel.

The touch area needed to be bigger
The rotation logic required more work so it feels more connected, like the finger gesture is actually responsible for the changes in the playlist size.
After a while of playing with it, I also wanted to give it a different visual flair. Like what if the iPod wheel was made in 2026?

Iteration 2

How cool would it be if the component were based on a spring mechanism? It always returns to initial position and changing the values feels like winding up a toy.

I also made the touch handle a lot bigger, giving it colour and a visual response when pressing the component for the first time, as well as a bit of a bouncy entrance when the sheet first opens.

Iteration 3

Remember how one of the goals was not to spend too much time on it? It turns out, there are a lot of things you can do with a wheel-like control so I spent almost the entire weekend refining the physics of it and adding some extra features.

Version 1.7.2

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Playlist resizing: The Change Playlist screen has been improved to make it easier to generate a shorter or a longer playlist.

Your playlists: It's now a lot easier to open your personal Apple Music playlists directly from the app.

Open in Apple Music: You can now open the album or artist of the currently playing song directly in Apple Music, for when you'd like to continue listening there.
Add song to playlist: Add any song from your Apple Music library to an existing playlist without disrupting its mood.
Pin songs: Pin a song to keep it at a specific position when regenerating a playlist.
Improved playlist generation: The playlist generator has been updated with improvements and refinements to how playlists are created.
Support for streaming services other than Apple Music has been removed.

Deeper Apple Music integration

Konstantin — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

With version 1.7.2, Flowvi.be takes better advantage of Apple Music.

Import your playlists

Importing playlists from your library is now easier. You can tap the + button directly from the Playlists screen. This imports the playlist as-is and lets you regenerate it to create alternatives with a similar mood.

Add a song to a playlist

On the surface this sounds straightforward, but it required rethinking how the Mood Engine handles additions. In Flowvi.be, all playlists are designed to be based on a specific mood. To allow for any song to be added, the engine needed to accept the track without disrupting the mood profile of the playlist.

This is now possible. You can add any song from your Apple Music library to a playlist. To do so, open a playlist, tap the 3 dots menu, and choose Add Song. The will apear at the top of the playlist, and you can drag it to wherever it fits best.

Pinning songs

When Flowvi.be regenerates a playlist, every track is up for replacement - tracks are added, removed or may move to a different position. Sometimes you want to keep a specific song at a specific position or to make sure that a song remains in the playlist even when it's regenerated.

You can pin a track from the song actions menu (the 3 dots on the right of a song row). Pinned songs are now supported by the playlist engine and new playlist versions will be adapted to accomodate them.

All changes in v1.7.2

Version 1.7.1

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Quickly resize: Quickly resize playlists by tapping on the duration indicator.

Rename playlists: You can now rename any playlist directly from the playlist detail screen.
Export progress: When exporting a playlist to Apple Music, a progress indicator now shows how far along the export is.
Fixed a bug where long playlist names would overlap with the action buttons in the playlist detail screen.
Fixed a bug where the delete confirmation dialog would not dismiss correctly on iPad.

Version 1.7

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Improved playlists: The app now generates more complex and refined playlists. We've significantly expanded the capabilities of the playlist generator so more complex narratives can be embedded in a playlist. All curated playlists have been refined to take advantage of these new features as well as taking your fantastic feedback into account.
The regenerate button has been removed from imported playlists where it doesn't make sense.
Mentions of "mix" have been replaced with "Playlist" which is the correct translation.
Fixed a bug which may cause the re-order button to appear on song rows when it's not expected.
Fixed a bug where an invalid playlist mixing style icon will be shown in the playlist detail.
Minimum iOS version is now iOS 26. Support for iOS 18 has been dropped.

Import Spotify, Tidal and SoundCloud Playlists

Konstantin — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Flowvi.be can import public playlists from Spotify, Tidal, and SoundCloud into your Apple Music library. Since the app works with Apple Music, this is a quick way to bring over playlists without sharing your credentials with anyone.

How to import a playlist

Copy the public URL of a playlist from Spotify, Tidal, or SoundCloud.
Open Flowvi.be and tap the plus button or music button to choose Import Playlist.
Paste the URL and tap Import.

The app matches tracks from the source playlist to Apple Music and adds them to your library. The imported playlist then appears alongside your other playlists in the app.

Automatic updates

Flowvi.be can periodically check your imported playlists for updates and automatically refresh them. This works as a way to subscribe to popular public playlists you're interested in having in your library — the app will pick up new tracks as they're added to the original.

The app is called flowvi.be

Konstantin — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A few people have asked me about the name. Where does 'flowvi.be' come from? Is it 'Flowvi' or 'Flowvibe'? Why the unusual domain?

First, a bit of history.

The project started in February 2025 as a weekend experiment I called 'Mood Engine' - a way to automatically sort my music library by energy and mood. At the time, I was working through some ideas around algorithmic playlist generation and wanted to see if I could build something useful without relying on cloud services or AI.

Early prototypes were very short-lived as I was learning about music and playlists in general. The research was fascinating, and I was learning quite a lot about things like energy, drops, and trying to create a narrative.

One of the biggest challenges was the fact that flowvi.be would eventually have to be able to do that in an automated, programmatic way. In other words, the project was touching on trying to find an algorithm to describe what 'feels' good in a playlist.

Once the Mood Engine started taking shape and I began working on wireframes and a link with my Apple Music library, I decided it was time for a codename. The very first name of the app that I chose was Kara.

It sounds a bit random, but actually it goes back to 2013 and a PS3 Tech Demo shown at GDC 2012:

That short film made a strong impression on me years ago - a story about an android discovering consciousness while being assembled on a factory line. I liked the metaphor: something mechanical becoming something more. That was what I wanted the app to do - take a mechanical process (sorting tracks by metadata) and turn it into something that feels personal and alive.

Flowvi.be

Eventually, the shipping name of the app came together from two words: flow and vibe.

'Flow' because the app is about getting into a state of flow - whether you're working out, focusing, or unwinding. The right music removes friction and lets you stay in the moment.

'Vibe' because it's about creating a mood and beyond just a playlist, it's about tweaking the environment to match a specific emotion.

Put them together and you get 'flowvibe'. I thought it would be cool to also have a domain which matches the name of the app exactly, something short and memorable.

Since I'm based in Belgium, the .be TLD was an interesting choice: flowvi.be. It reads as both a domain and the full name of the app.

So yes, it's 'Flowvibe' (one word), written as 'flowvi.be'. And now you have the full story behind it.

Version 1.6.4

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Shortcuts integration: The app now provides several functions via the Shortcuts app so you can create advanced mood-based workflows. More shortcuts are in the works - I want to thank everyone for sending in their feedback and contributing ideas ❤️.
AirPlay controls: Based on user request, an AirPlay control is now available in the player view so you can switch playback to HomePods, Apple TV, or any connected Bluetooth speaker supporting AirPlay.
Fixed missing translations in the regenerate mood screen.
Fixed a bug leading to imported playlists losing their mood profile after being regenerated.

Artwork Bugfixes in 1.6.3

Konstantin — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The latest version of the app is now available on the App Store to address a bug I accidentally introduced in version 1.6.2.

Shortly after 1.6.2 was released, some of you reported that the list of moods was no longer showing any artworks. Opening a mood playlist in such cases was also not working - you'd see a 'generating mix' loading message forever.

The root cause was a regression in the way the app periodically loads artworks. Assets coming from different streaming services need to be treated differently, e.g. loading artwork from Apple Music is not the same as loading artwork from Tidal or SoundCloud. Version 1.6.2 brought performance improvements to the process of loading artworks, but it also introduced a small bug where the app wouldn't always choose the correct provider for loading remote assets.

The fix is already released and should be installed on your device automatically. If not, you can also get it immediately by opening the App Store app, tapping on your avatar and scrolling down to the list of available updates.

With that out of the way, I'm resuming my focus on version 1.7, which will set the stage for better discovery of music that fits the mood and some improvements to playlist management.

P.S.: If you have an idea of how we can make the app better, you're always welcome to send an email 💜 or send me a DM on Mastodon or Bluesky. All feedback is greatly appreciated 🤩!

https://bsky.app/profile/flowvi.be/post/3mbvigwwoac2h

Version 1.6.3

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Artwork loading: Fixed a problem that may prevent artworks from loading. This started occurring for some users in version 1.6.2.

Version 1.6.1

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ambient Lightning automations: Control whether flowvi.be automatically turns on selected lights when playing music.
Artwork loading improved: Reduced network calls and better use of local caching.

Music that colours the room

Konstantin — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

If you have any colour lights connected to the Home app, Flowvi.be can now set up a scene from your Apple Music library!

Sync your music with Home app lighting so the colour of the room follows the mood of the currently playing track. The goal is simple: let a playlist do more than sound right. It should feel right, in the space you are in.

https://bsky.app/profile/flowvi.be/post/3max7rufmvp2y

The colour palette options in the app now extend to your connected lights. When a track shifts, the palette shifts. The app reads the same audio features it uses for playlist generation, translates that into a palette context, and updates your Home app accessories accordingly.

It's never been easier to create immersive mood playlists and allow the mood to expand into the room. If you already use Flowvi.be for focus, calm, energy, or late-night listening, this feature makes that mood physical, not just audible.

Fact sheet

Works with the Home app and any HomeKit light that supports colour.
Sets hue, saturation, and brightness to match the mood of the current track.
Updates when playback starts, when the song changes, and when the Take changes.
Keeps the experience gentle by debouncing rapid updates.

Under the hood, Flowvi.be resolves a colour from the mood palette, converts it to HSB, and applies it to your selected accessories. If a light only supports brightness or colour temperature, it still gets the right level and tone, but the feature is best with full-colour bulbs.

Setup

Open Flowvi.be and go to Ambient Lighting section in Settings.
Toggle it on and grant HomeKit access if prompted.
Choose a scope: all lights, specific rooms, or individual accessories.
Start a playlist in Flowvi.be and keep the app in the foreground while you listen.

And done.

Privacy

This feature is privacy preserving by design. All configuration stays on device. Your selected rooms, accessories, and preferences are stored locally. The colour palette logic runs locally. There is no account involved and no remote service determining what your lights should do. The only permission you grant is HomeKit, which is required to control your accessories, and that access is handled by iOS.

This is important to me (and to you) because lighting is part of your home. You should be able to trust that the choices you make in the app remain yours. Flowvi.be does not export your Home app configuration, and it does not need to. Everything it needs lives on your device.

Tips

Flowvi.be supports a Night Mode option which lets you reduce brightness after a set time (e.g. if you're going to sleep or just prefer a toned down ambience).
Check out the Mood Palettes options which are the base colour configuration that will be applied to connected accessories. We've included several presets and you can also choose your own base colour 🌈.

What is next

We are not stopping at Home app integration. I am already working on bringing even more lighting options into Flowvi.be, including DMX and sACN support. If you have some WLED gadgets and you're feeling adventurous, send me a DM on Mastodon or Bluesky and I can share a beta link so you can try them out. All early feedback is greatly appreciated 🤩!

All changes in v1.6

Version 1.6

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Connect Flowvi.be with the Home app - You can now select one or more accessories to merge music and light. Keep the app open while playing and it can automatically set colour scenes that match the mood of the currently playing track.
We've reviewed and improved our mood colour palette options and they now work beyond the app by setting the mood via HomeKit to any lights which support colours.
The built-in player has been improved with a fresh layout and a progress indicator (for when loading a track takes a moment).
When you import a playlist from Tidal, Spotify, SoundCloud or Apple Music, you can subscribe to updates so any changes to the original playlist will be reflected in the app. Now we also added "Update now" option so you can sync the playlist on demand. External playlists now also show how long ago was their last update.
Fixed a bug that may prevent the paywall from closing automatically after a successful subscription.
Fixed a crash when the full screen media player is open while no song is playing.
Improved translations for Danish, Finnish, Spanish, Hungarian, Romanian and Slovenian.

Creating playlists without AI

Konstantin — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Everyone seems busy releasing AI-powered features... But there is a thrill in building software without prompts or heavy cloud processing.

Flowvi.be started as a pet project to explore how far we can go with just on-device algorithms, and so far the results have been very promising.

What's a mood?

For us, a mood is a set of parameters describing a song - genre, BPM, energy, valence, danceability, tempo, and others. Together, they define what we call a mood: energetic, mindful, or chill.

What do we do with it?

It works like this: when you pick a mood, Flowvi.be uses a deterministic scoring engine on-device to rank tracks from your library and stitch them into a playlist. Our playlist engine is designed to provide consistent, repeatable results. The outputs are entirely based on the contents of your library. It's a very "you" mix.

Of course, our approach can never be better than a human-curated playlist. Those are shaped by taste, context, experience and intent in ways software can't fully recreate.

Flowvi.be doesn't try to predict what you should like next, and it doesn't need to watch everything you do. Instead, once we index your library, the playlist engine runs entirely on your device, only using your own music library as a guide.

The future

There's a quiet satisfaction in software that does its job locally, consistently, and without asking for more data than it needs. That's our focus and we have some exciting plans to make the app even better.

Hope you choose to stay with us in 2026!

PS: If you have an idea of how we can make the app better, you're always welcome to send us an email 💜.

Playlist for the perfect workout

Konstantin — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Since version 1.5, Flowvi.be has a dedicated filter allowing one to choose the length of a playlist. Two options are available to set the desired playlist size:

Number of tracks: A target number of tracks.
Duration: The total play time of the playlist.

Once you choose an option, the app will try to match that requirement as best as possible given the available tracks in your library. It's possible that the final playlist is a little bit longer or a little bit shorter.

To use this feature, open a mood and tap the Regenerate button. The first section is Playlist Length allowing you to choose how long the generated playlists needs to be.

Version 1.5

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Added option to prefer instrumental songs when regenerating a playlist.
The built-in player now supports seeking, you can scrub through the currently playing track.
The app is now translated to 27 languages including: English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian.
Improved playlist creation from natural text.
Fixed missing playback indicator when playing imported playlists.
Fixed an issue that may cause the queued tracks to be out of order after excluding a song from a playlist.

Version 1.4

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

New feature: Import playlists from external music services (Spotify, SoundCloud, Tidal, Apple Music)
Playlist engine: enhanced playlist generation

Colour palettes

Konstantin — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Colour and mood are often interconnected. Every mood mix in Flowvi.be has a specific colour that reflects the selection of songs as well as the currently playing track.

It took exhaustive research to create what I call the "Colour Flow Engine" which is able to dynamically reflect the mood in the colour of the full screen player view.

Colour and mood

The meaning of colours can vary greatly between different cultures, influencing anything from aesthetics and religious symbolism to marketing. While Flowvi.be comes with a carefully chosen defaults, it also makes it easy to tweak and adapt using the Mood Palettes feature.

Colour palettes

Flowvi.be currently supports the following options:

Default - A simple scheme for every mood. This is the one that's activated out of the box
Aurora - Colours are adjusted to match energy and emotion. This one was introduced in Flowvi.be 1.2 and is still a bit experimental (You're more than welcome to reach out with ideas on how to improve it!)
Time of Day - This one adapts colours depending on the time of the day. It starts with cool mornings and moves on to warm evenings.
High Contrast - This one makes the difference between the colour of every mood a lot more pronounced for enhanced legibility and contrast.
Mono - If none of the above are to your liking, you can also choose to have a single colour of your choosing applied to all moods.

Version 1.3.1

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Fixes a bug causing a number of users to be unable to open playlists on the devices running iOS 18.

Version 1.3

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

New feature: Pin individual songs so they remain when the mood is regenerated.
Based on user feedback, the Meditation mood has been added - a new curated playlist mood for calm, focused listening.

Version 1.2

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

New Feature: Added the Aurora colour pallette reflecting the mood and energy of every song.
This update makes the app more reliable with bigger music collections

Version 1.1

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

New feature: Accessibility and colour options
Playlist engine: enhanced on-device playlist generation

Version 1.0

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

What's New

Initial release of Flowvi.be
Mood-based playlist generation from your Apple Music library