Android app

The Android app is the AIOStreams app for Android phones, tablets and TVs: Android TV, Google TV, Fire TV and the NVIDIA Shield. Like every AIOStreams app, it signs in to your configuration's media server, so there is nothing to self-host. The video plays natively, in ExoPlayer or mpv, so MKV files, HEVC and AV1 video, HDR and Dolby Vision, surround sound and styled subtitles all play.

Sintel is © Blender Foundation, shared under CC BY 3.0.

DownloadCopy Anchor Link

Each build is made for a kind of processor. Pick yours from the Android release:

Not sure? Take arm64-v8a on a phone, and armeabi-v7a on a TV device. armeabi-v7a also installs on most newer devices, so it's the safe choice when Android says the other isn't compatible.

Open the downloaded file to install it. Android asks once to allow installing apps from your browser or file manager.

It needs Android 7.0 or later and a recent web engine: Android System WebView or Chrome 109 or later. With an older one, the app says so instead of opening. Update Android System WebView from the Play Store; Fire TV updates its own with the system.

On a TVCopy Anchor Link

On Android TV, Google TV and Fire TV, the app opens in a layout made for the remote. The arrows move between everything on screen, Back goes back, and holding Select on a title opens its menu. Voice search works from the search page on Android TV and Google TV, and while you type a search, suggested titles show above the keyboard's keys.

Sintel is © Blender Foundation, shared under CC BY 3.0.

Installing on Fire TVCopy Anchor Link

Installing on Android TV and Google TVCopy Anchor Link

Install Downloader from the TV's Play Store, allow it to install unknown apps when it asks (or in the TV's security settings), and enter the Downloader code for your device from the table above: 5368982 (armeabi-v7a) for most TV boxes, 2899297 (arm64-v8a) for the NVIDIA Shield. Or download the file on a phone and send it to the TV with a file-sharing app.

Signing in on a TVCopy Anchor Link

Typing on a TV is slow, so choose Quick Connect on the app's sign-in screen and approve the code it shows on the configure page, under Save & Install → Jellyfin apps → Connect. See signing in for the other ways in.

TV settingsCopy Anchor Link

Two settings under Settings → Playback show only on a TV:

• Match the video's frame rate switches the TV to a refresh rate that suits each video, so motion plays smoothly.
• Tunneled playback lets the TV's decoder keep picture and sound in step, which plays 4K and HDR more smoothly on some TVs. Turn it off if video stutters or stays black.

Pass surround audio through, under Settings → Audio, sends Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD and DTS, including DTS-HD, to the TV, receiver or soundbar as they are, which keeps Atmos. By default it does so for the formats they say they decode. Always sends them even when they don't say so, as some decode them without saying, and Off decodes them in the app.

PlayingCopy Anchor Link

The app plays with one of two engines, under Settings → Playback → Player → Engine:

When a video fails to play, the error screen offers to try the other engine.

• Subtitles in time. Subtitles from your subtitle addons, or a file you add, line up with the subtitles inside the video by themselves, whatever their language, within a moment of showing. Subtitles made for a version at another frame rate are stretched to fit first.
• Styled subtitles. Subtitles with their own styling, such as most anime releases, are drawn by the same renderer mpv uses in both engines, so their fonts, positions and effects look the same in ExoPlayer as in mpv.
• Dolby Vision plays as Dolby Vision where the screen and the device's decoder take it. Profile 7 releases are converted to profile 8.1 on the fly where the decoder only takes profile 8, and on a screen without Dolby Vision the HDR10 or HLG picture underneath plays instead. Profile 5, which has no such picture, plays in mpv with its colours worked out in software, which works but is heavy on the processor. If Dolby Vision looks dim or flickers, turn off Dolby Vision under Settings → Playback → Video to play the HDR10 picture most of these videos also carry. Statistics in the player's menu shows how a video is playing.
• Anime upscaling. Anime upscaling under Settings → Playback → Video sharpens the lines and cleans up the compression in anime as it plays, most of all in older and lower-resolution shows. It applies to titles your catalogs mark as anime. It uses more battery, leaves HDR videos and videos about as large as the screen as they are, and turns itself off for a video the device can't keep up with. Statistics in the player's menu shows which applies in ExoPlayer.
• Your own mpv shaders. Under Settings → Android app, Add a shader gives the built-in mpv a GLSL shader file, applied to what plays along with any your mpv.conf lists.
• Cache. The player holds part of the video in memory: ahead, to ride out a slow or unsteady connection, and behind, so seeking back is instant. Cache size, under Settings → Playback → Player, sets how much; Automatic sizes it from the device's memory, and on mobile data the app reads only a little ahead. Intros and other segments set to skip aren't fetched, and for one with a skip button, the start of what follows it is fetched early, so skipping doesn't wait on the connection.
• Leaving the app. On a phone or tablet, the picture-in-picture button in the player's controls moves the video into a small window, and Picture-in-picture under Settings → Android app does the same when you leave the app. Play in the background, there too, keeps the sound going with the screen off.
• Other players. Under Settings → Playback → Player, Play versions in opens versions in VLC, MX Player, mpv or another video app instead, which comes back to the app with your place saved.

Touch controlsCopy Anchor Link

• Tap shows or hides the controls; double tap either side to skip back or forward.
• Swipe across the video to seek, up and down on the left for brightness and on the right for volume.
• Pinch out to fill the screen, in to fit the whole picture.
• Press and hold to play faster while you hold, at the Held speed under Settings → Playback.
• Lock screen, at the top of the player, ignores touches until you tap to unlock.

DownloadsCopy Anchor Link

On phones and tablets, the app downloads movies, episodes and whole seasons to watch without a connection. See Downloads and offline. TVs don't download.

UpdatesCopy Anchor Link

The app checks for updates and offers to install them under Settings → Android app → Updates, where you can also switch to nightly builds. They come from every change, ahead of releases, and can break. An update installs over the app you have, keeping your sign-ins and settings.