On the desktop

MixMusic on your desktop: the mini player, the MacBook notch player, the tray, media keys and media controls, global shortcuts, notifications and Discord.

Most of what this page covers is in Settings › Desktop, and the global shortcuts are in Settings › Shortcuts. All of it works on Windows, macOS and Linux unless a section says otherwise.

The mini player

The mini player is a small window that stays on top of your other windows, with what plays and the buttons to control it. Open it with:

• the mini player button at the end of the player bar;
• Ctrl M (⌘ M on macOS), or Mini player in the command palette;
• Mini player in the tray icon's menu.

It shows the cover, the title, the artists with the mark of their service, and the time and the length ("live" for a live stream), with a line of the accent along its foot for the progress. Its buttons:

• previous, play or pause, and next;
• the heart, which likes what plays, and the thumbs-down, which dislikes it;
• the volume: a click mutes and unmutes, the mouse wheel over it turns the volume up and down, and a small slider shows above it while the pointer is over it. Tab reaches the button and then the slider, whose arrow keys set the volume; Escape closes it;
• at the top right, one button that opens MixMusic's main window and one that closes the mini player.

Drag the mini player anywhere but its buttons to move it, and drag its edges to resize it: the cover takes its height, and grows up to 180 px at 100% zoom. It opens where you left it. A right click opens a menu of speeds for what plays. The mini player takes no keyboard shortcuts but the zoom's. It zooms with the main window, and its window grows and shrinks with it.

The player around the notch

On a MacBook whose screen has a notch, MixMusic widens the black around the camera while a track is loaded: the cover on the left, and bars that move while it plays on the right.

• Click either side for a panel that grows down from the notch, with the player, the progress bar, and the line of the lyrics sung now, with the lines before and after it. For a podcast's episode, it shows the chapter that plays instead. The panel shows the lyrics in Latin letters when the lyrics panel does.
• The cover in the panel opens MixMusic on the now playing page.
• To close it, press Escape, click either side of the notch again, or move the pointer away for two seconds.

The player shows over every app and on every Space, in full screen too, and stays while MixMusic is in the tray. It leaves the keyboard in the app you were using until you open the panel, and gives it back when the panel closes. It is black with white text whatever your theme, as it extends the notch.

It is on by default. Turn it off with Player around the notch in Settings › Desktop, a switch that shows only on Macs with a notch, or with "notchPlayer": false in settings.json. Other Macs, external displays, a MacBook with its lid closed, Windows and Linux show nothing of it.

The tray

MixMusic puts an icon in the tray (the menu bar on macOS). Its menu has Play / Pause, Next, Previous, Show MixMusic, Mini player, and the item that quits MixMusic. On Windows and macOS, a click on the icon shows the main window and a right click opens the menu; on Linux, a click opens the menu.

Close to the tray

With Close to the tray on, in Settings › Desktop, closing the main window keeps the music playing: MixMusic hides in the tray until you show it again from the tray icon, by starting MixMusic again, or with a global shortcut of your own for Show MixMusic. It is off on a new install, so closing the window quits MixMusic.

• To quit with Close to the tray on, choose the quit item of the tray icon's menu, or ⌘ Q on macOS.
• On macOS, a click on MixMusic's icon in the Dock shows the window again. A window closed in full screen leaves full screen first, then hides, and comes back in full screen.
• In the Flatpak, MixMusic asks your desktop's background portal to let it play on with the window closed.
• On Linux, the tray needs libayatana-appindicator3 and a desktop that shows AppIndicator icons; GNOME needs its AppIndicator extension. Without a tray icon, closing the window quits MixMusic.

Media keys and the system's media controls

MixMusic shows what plays in your system's own media controls, with the cover, the title and the artists, and takes their buttons:

• Windows: the media flyout, which shows with the volume keys and in Quick Settings, with the cover, play or pause, previous, next and a seek bar.
• macOS: Now Playing, in Control Center, which the media keys and the buttons of headphones reach too.
• Linux: an MPRIS player, which your desktop shows in its media controls and passes its media keys to. In the Flatpak, it shows under the Flatpak's name. Setting the speed (rate) over MPRIS sets MixMusic's speed.

The covers there come from the covers MixMusic keeps on disk, so a cover you saw in the window shows there at once, and offline too.

Media keys, in Settings › Desktop and on by default, has the keyboard's play or pause, next and previous keys control MixMusic, and its stop key pause it. While a track loads, they and the system's controls do nothing: a track can't be paused or moved until you hear it.

The taskbar thumbnail on Windows

On Windows, the thumbnail that shows while the pointer rests on MixMusic's taskbar button has three buttons: previous, play or pause, and next. They are off while there's no track to play.

The window title

The main window's title names the track that plays, for the taskbar, the window switcher and screen readers, and starts with "Paused:" while it's paused. Turn off Show what plays in the window title in Settings › Desktop to keep it to MixMusic's name.

Global shortcuts

Global shortcuts are keys of your own that control MixMusic whichever window is in front, even with its window closed to the tray. Record them in the From any app group at the top of Settings › Shortcuts, for:

• Play or pause
• Next track and Previous track
• Volume up, Volume down and Mute
• Like what plays and Dislike what plays
• Show MixMusic

A new install has none. To set one, choose set on its row and press the keys; Escape cancels and Backspace removes it.

• A global shortcut needs Ctrl, Alt or the Windows key on Windows, Ctrl, Alt or Super on Linux, and ⌘ or ⌃ on macOS. F1 to F12 may stand alone, but F12 on Windows, which keeps it for itself.
• While MixMusic runs, those keys do nothing else, in MixMusic's own window too: a command of the window that had them gives them up.
• Keys the system refuses, as when another app has them, stay yours: the row says why, with try again, and MixMusic tries again at each start.
• On Wayland, your desktop asks you to confirm them, and its keyboard settings can change them. On macOS, a letter is the key in its place on a US keyboard.
• Liking or disliking from another window shows a notification, while notifications are on.

The media keys work as they do without any global shortcut.

Notifications

With Notifications on, in Settings › Desktop and on by default, MixMusic shows a notification when a track starts while its window isn't in front: the title, the artists and the album. A click on it shows MixMusic. The tray icon's tip names what plays too.

Discord

While the Discord app runs on your computer, your Discord profile shows what you listen to: the title, the artists, the cover and the time left. Pausing clears it, and a live stream shows how long it has played. Discord's member list says "Listening to MixMusic". There's nothing to set up: turn it off with Show what plays on Discord in Settings › Desktop.

• Discord application ID, under the switch, shows the name of a Discord application of your own in place of MixMusic's: create one in Discord's developer portal and paste its application ID.
• Discord's own Spotify status comes from your Discord account's link to Spotify. To show only MixMusic, turn off "Display Spotify as your status" in Discord's Connections.
• MixMusic finds Discord's Canary build too, and Vesktop installed with Flatpak. In MixMusic's Flatpak, a Discord app that isn't a Flatpak shows what plays only if it was running when MixMusic started.

Start at login

Start at login, in Settings › Desktop, starts MixMusic when you sign in to your computer, with its window hidden in the tray, from where the tray icon shows it. In the Flatpak, it goes through your desktop's background portal, which may ask you first.

Sleep

MixMusic pauses as the computer goes to sleep, and stays paused when it wakes, ready where it was. A Spotify Connect device elsewhere plays on.

mixmusic:// links

Links that start with mixmusic:// open a page of MixMusic, or play a track, from a browser or another app:

An ID is MixMusic's own: the service's ID after yt: for YouTube Music or sp: for Spotify. Opening MixMusic a second time, or a link while it runs, opens the page in the window that's there.