Music Assistant Companion App for Android

The Android companion app for Music Assistant — a free, open-source, self-hosted music server.

Features

• Fully native UI — Jetpack Compose with Material 3 theming, no WebView
• Direct audio streaming — PCM audio via Sendspin protocol, played directly through Android AudioTrack for low-latency playback
• Media controls — Lock screen, notification, and Bluetooth/headset controls via Media3 MediaSession
• Background playback — Foreground service with WakeLock keeps audio playing reliably in the background
• Multi-player support — View and control any player on your MA server from the app
• Library browsing — Browse artists, albums, tracks, playlists, and radio stations with pagination
• Search — Search across your entire music library
• Queue management — View, reorder, and manage the playback queue
• Real-time sync — Event-driven WebSocket updates keep the app in sync with the server

Requirements

• Android 8.0 (API 26) or higher
• A running Music Assistant server on your network

Installation

Download the latest APK from the Releases page.

Building from source

Prerequisites

• Android Studio Hedgehog (2023.1.1) or later
• JDK 17
• Android SDK 35

Build

# Debug build
./gradlew assembleDebug

# Release build
./gradlew assembleRelease

The APK will be at app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk or app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk.

Architecture

Layer	Technology
UI	Jetpack Compose, Material 3
Navigation	Navigation Compose with slide animations
Media	Media3 (ExoPlayer + ForwardingPlayer + MediaSession)
Audio Streaming	Direct AudioTrack via Sendspin protocol (PCM)
Background	LifecycleService with foreground notification
Networking	OkHttp WebSockets, kotlinx.serialization
Settings	DataStore Preferences
Image Loading	Coil

Project structure

app/src/main/java/io/musicassistant/companion/
├── data/
│   ├── api/             # WebSocket API client + typed API wrapper
│   ├── model/           # Data models (Player, Queue, Media items)
│   ├── sendspin/        # Sendspin protocol client (audio streaming)
│   └── settings/        # DataStore preferences
├── media/
│   ├── NativeMediaManager   # ExoPlayer + ForwardingPlayer + MediaSession
│   ├── StreamAudioPlayer    # Direct AudioTrack for PCM streaming
│   └── AudioStreamPipe      # (legacy) Pipe-based streaming
├── service/
│   ├── MusicService     # Foreground service, notifications, metadata
│   └── ServiceLocator   # Shared singletons (DI)
└── ui/
    ├── common/          # Shared composables (MediaComponents, VisualEffects)
    ├── home/            # Home screen (recently played, favorites)
    ├── library/         # Library browsing + detail screens
    ├── navigation/      # App navigation graph
    ├── player/          # Now playing, mini player, queue
    ├── search/          # Search screen
    ├── settings/        # Settings screen
    └── theme/           # Material 3 theming (colors, typography)

Related projects

• Music Assistant Server
• Music Assistant Frontend
• Music Assistant Desktop App

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 — see the LICENSE file for details.