Systems and methods for displaying media files on a device are provided. The device provides a first mode that displays a subset of media files, determined by a user query, from a plurality of media files. Once activated, the first mode persists on the device prior to becoming inactive. A second mode of the device displays the plurality of media files. The second mode is active when the first mode is inactive. An instruction is received from a user. When the instruction specifies the first mode by inclusion of a user query, a corresponding subset of files is obtained from a remote system. The subset of files is sequentially displayed until the period of time has elapsed according to the first mode. When the instruction does not specify a query, the plurality of files is polled for from a remote device and sequentially displayed according to the second mode.