It’s time for the iPod Shuffle to come back, in wireless form

This year is the 20th anniversary of the iPod Shuffle’s launch, and the eighth anniversary of its discontinuation. The iPhone especially made it seem pretty redundant, and I hadn’t really thought about it in years – but talking to people in the tech world recently about a few trends not only put it back in my mind, it actually got me excited for what a new version of it could be.

First up: dedicated music players are having a real moment. The stalwarts of Sony and Astell & Kern, among the best MP3 players, have been joined by Chinese brands such as Fiio, HiBy, and Shanling to shake things up, bringing audiophile specs for affordable prices.

Second, and somewhat related: a lot of people are looking to disconnect from their phones. Phone addiction is very real, especially when people are desperate for social media to feed them positive news that never seems to be forthcoming – the best way to avoid doomscrolling is to have nothing to scroll. But that doesn’t mean you want to give up your music – indeed, some dedicated listening might be exactly the mental health aid you’re looking for.

Earlier this year, I went on holiday and locked my phone in the hotel safe all day, every day, and it was bliss. I checked it a few times per day for important messages and locked it back up.

I still listened to music while chilling out, but I’d synced some playlists to my Apple Watch, and I just listened on my AirPods playing from the watch.

I also leave my phone in my locker at the gym, and I very much seem to be in the minority on that, but I think it does wonders for both my mental state there and the intensity of my workout. There are people who love to leave the phone at home when they go out on a run, of course.

The iPod Shuffle 2010 with Apple's wired earbuds

This was the last iPod Shuffle. Lose the old-school earbuds, and couldn’t you see this design coming back? (Image credit: Apple)

And that system is basically my concept for a new iPhone Shuffle. It could be a little screenless device with similar connectivity to the Apple Watch, and just like the watch, it could sync certain playlists to its internal storage automatically, or you could hop into a menu that enables you to choose music to sync to it.

AirPods will connect to it automatically when you start playing music, using the same Apple ID auto-switch system they already have for seamlessly moving between your phone and watch.

In particular, the heart-rate and exercise tracking features of AirPods Pro 3 would be a great pairing with it – have your little iPod Shuffle in your pocket or clipped on, with your AirPods feeding it exercise data, and you’ve got good beginner fitness tracking without the need for a phone or smartwatch.

I think this device should have a wired headphones connection too, naturally. 3.5mm would be best, of course, but I could maybe compromise with Apple on a USB-C port. Physical controls are a must if it has a wired connection too.

It would also be a fun design exercise to see today’s Apple take on a modern mobile music player. The iPod used to be a real playground for different shapes, finishes, and colors, and this could be too.

As much as anything, I think it’d be a success because people would love to see the iPod name come back – we’re in the world of sequels and revivals from that era taking over popular culture, so why not one more?

An iPod Nano 6th gen in a man's hand — Though I’m pitching a screenless device, it obviously could have a little screen, like the iPod Nano 6th-gen here – after all, I’m already mimicking other tech in the Apple Watch.

People want music to be exciting again

The world of portable music enthusiasts has been given a real jolt of energy by the introduction of new device options, and broad availability of Hi-Res Audio streaming (now including Spotify Lossless at long last!).

A growing number of people are swapping listening on their phone to listening on a dedicated player with the best wired earbuds or headphones because this gives music a boost over listening on their phone with budget Bluetooth earbuds.

My thesis as to why the vinyl revival has lasted so long, and a big part of why dedicated music players are seeing such interest, is that streaming services made music somehow boring. Or, at least, they made it not as exciting anymore. After all, when you have everything on tap at all times, that’s naturally going to make any individual part of it feel less special, won’t it?

People want music to be special, though. And they’re looking for ways to make it exciting again, whether that’s hunting in record stores for rare vinyl, or listening to albums in audiophile quality for the first time using a dedicated player built for that purpose.

The new iPod Shuffle is unlikely to fulfil the audiophile side of this (the transfer and storage of lossless files is probably more trouble than it’s worth for a device like this, though I’d love to see it), but Apple could have all kinds of fun with music discovery and syncing on it.

Yes, you should be able to sync over whatever playlists you like manually, but maybe it could also offer you ‘surprise’ playlists, like letting it effectively sync your Apple Music Discover station offline so you can listen to a load of new music with no distractions – but you won’t know exactly what it’s syncing. You’ll have to listen and find out. I’d even love a feature that deactivates the ability to skip tracks, just to really force you to listen in the moment.

And I think I’d enjoy a feature like having playlists for different exercises curated by the Apple Fitness+ trainers – again, with the actual tracklist kept hidden, so you just start working out and see what you get, like an actual class.

This could even be a great use for Apple Intelligence, if you could ask it to make a playlist based on certain moods or characteristics, synced straight to the Shuffle – and again, the fun would be not knowing what you’re going to get.

I doubt the return of the iPhone Shuffle is actually in the cards, but it just struck me that Apple already has all the key tech in place for a modern version of it, and I happened to speak to a few people in quick succession, talking about how fondly they remember using both the iPod Shuffle and Nano.

Now I can’t get the idea out of my head, especially with this idea of it actually removing some of the control from you – I’m terrible for skipping through tracks on my playlists and stations. Maybe I could do with something to slow me down and leave me untethered from my phone even more often.