Gnome 48 Debuts New Audio Player
To date, the audio player found within the Gnome desktop has been meh at best, but with the upcoming release that all changes.
Whenever I install a distribution with the Gnome desktop, one of the first things I do is install a better audio player as the default has always been pretty bland.
With the upcoming Gnome 48, that all changes thanks to Decibels. This no-frills audio player does one thing – plays audio files – and does it with a stripped-down UI and a bare minimum of features. Decibels is notan app to manage your music but an app to play your music.
The Decibels feature set is pretty slim at the moment. It includes audio playback, waveform display, a scrubbable seek bar, speed control, volume slider, and 10 and 30 seconds forward/backward buttons. You won't even find a preferences window or any customizations available. Decibels is stripped down and simple. You can't add multiple songs for playback, as Decibels isn't capable of queuing files; Decibels is one file at a time and nothing more.
For those who like their apps clean and simple, Decibels will be a treat. Hopefully, those in charge of the app will add the ability to at least queue an entire album of songs at once. That addition alone would level up this app.
For those who simply cannot wait for the release of Gnome 48 (or, possibly, the release of Ubuntu 25.04), you can install Decibels from Flathub with the command flatpak install decibels.
You can check out the Decibels GitLab site for more information.
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