# Momentum — a native Plex music client for Android Automotive OS (looking for closed testers)

Momentum app - now playing screen

I've been building a from-scratch Android Automotive OS app that streams music straight from your own Plex library into your car's head unit — no phone mirroring, no Android Auto relay, just a native app running on the car's own hardware. It's called **Momentum**, and it's the public spin-off of a personal build I've been daily-driving in my own EV for months. I'm at the point where I need real testers on real (or emulated) AAOS hardware before I can push toward a production Play Store listing, and I wanted to lay out exactly what's working today rather than ask for a leap of faith.

## What's validated and working right now

- **True FLAC direct play** — no transcoding. Streams your library's original files (FLAC, MP3, whatever you've got) over WAN/LTE or LAN, confirmed via server logs showing `decision=directPlay` with zero re-encoding.

- **Plex OAuth sign-in** — the standard `app.plex.tv/link` PIN flow. Works against your own server; nothing about your library or server topology is hardcoded into the app.

- **Automatic server discovery** — finds your server's LAN, WAN, and relay connections itself and picks the fastest, the same way official Plex clients do. Handles the WiFi↔cellular handoff without losing playback.

- **First-run playlist setup** — on first launch, Momentum pulls your actual playlists from your server and lets you assign four of them to quick-access slots. No assumptions about playlist names.

- **Full library browse** — dedicated tabs for Playlists, Artists, and Albums, pulled directly from your library (tested against a library with 764 artists / 2,616 albums with no issues). Tap an artist or album and it plays immediately — no drill-down required.

- **Voice control** — "Hey Google, play [song]" or "play [playlist]" routes straight into the app once it's the active media session. Also handles mid-queue song jumps and falls back to a live Plex search if the phrase isn't already queued.

- **Typed search** — a keyboard search panel for anything voice doesn't catch.

- **Star ratings** — rate a track in the car, see it reflected back in your Plex library.

- **Shuffle and repeat-one**, a live "Playing Next" queue you can scroll and jump around in, and startup persistence — the app remembers your last playlist and track position across power cycles.

- **Driving-distraction compliance** — while the vehicle is in motion, swipe navigation, star rating, and the search panel are gated off (with an in-app message telling you why); playback controls, shuffle/repeat, and voice commands all keep working. This is required for Play Store's automotive review and has been validated end-to-end in-vehicle.

- **Real crash reporting** — Firebase Crashlytics is wired in, so if something breaks on your device, I actually get a stack trace instead of a shrug. This matters a lot for a car app: there's no USB debugging or logcat access once it's running on a locked-down automotive head unit.

Everything above has been confirmed on a real Blazer EV running on OnStar's built-in LTE modem, not just an emulator — including cellular-only operation, no home WiFi involved.

## One thing to know before you sign up: FLAC over WAN needs a small server-side tweak

If your library has FLAC files and you want them to direct-play (not fail or get transcoded) when you're accessing your server remotely, Plex Media Server needs a client profile override that most setups don't have by default. It's a one-time deal: drop a small XML file into your Plex server's `Profiles` folder and restart Plex Media Server. Takes under five minutes, and I'll walk you through it directly if you sign up — just flagging it now so it's not a surprise on first stream over cellular. If you're only ever testing on the same LAN as your server, or your library is MP3, this doesn't apply to you.

## What I need from testers

- Your own Plex Media Server (owned/administered by you or someone who'll help you tweak the one profile file above)

- A Plex account with access to that server

- a real Android Automotive OS vehicle/head unit, an AAOS emulator

- A Google account you're willing to opt in to a closed testing track with

**The catch on commitment:** Google requires 12 opted-in testers active for 14 continuous days before I can move this toward a public listing — so signing up and staying opted in for that stretch is the single most useful thing a tester can do, even more than finding bugs.

## How to sign up

Reach out to me directly — PM me here on Reddit — and I'll send you the opt-in link and the FLAC profile instructions if you need them. I'll keep this updated as more testers come on and as features land.

Thanks for reading this far — happy to answer questions about the setup, the server-side pieces, or anything else before you commit.

update: removed the comment about the bug that was present, that has been addressed and is fixed / validation.
Also of note, testing will no longer work on phones or tablets, as adding in the vehicle in motion restrictions that google requires for AAOS apps on the play store, mean phones and tablets will no longer be able to install it.

I've been using Plexamp for a few months now (iOS, Windows, Linux) and here are my thoughts.

The UI is nice, the configuration options are great, the client runs fast on all my devices, and I really love that it supports the OPUS codec so the downloaded music takes up less space on my phone.

However, regarding the UX, there are a few frustrating things I wish the developers would address.

I primarily use playlists (thats how I used other clients too), so my feedback is mostly related to that, these things might not bother others at all.

The search function needs a rework: currently, it works somewhat like a "first match" mode. If an album name (which is common for singles) matches the track name, it only shows the album in the results. It would be great to have a filter bar at the top of the search (artists, albums, tracks) that remembers user preference. If I'm searching for a track 99% of the time, I shouldn't have to keep switching to it. Plus if theres a match for both an album and a track, this would keep them separated.

Missing playlist search: another search issue is that playlists don't have their own search function. If I’m currently playing a song and want to switch to another one while staying on the playlist, I simply can't search for it. If they added a playlist search, playing a matched track could automatically populate the "up next" queue with the rest of the playlist (following the playlist's set sorting order so it would act exactly as if I had just scrolled down to it and hit play).

iOS left/right swipe: a great UX addition for playlists would be allowing for example a right swipe to queue a track as "play next" (I know you can select "play next" from the context menu, but swiping would be much more convenient).

Quick playlist access from the player: Swiping up during playback gives 3 options: back to, up next, and related. If I'm playing from a playlist, it would be nice to be able to access the playlist itself just as easily as those three options.

Playlist sorting: it would be great to have an option to sort by date added. Since I use smart playlists (so I just have to copy the tracks into the playlist's folder on the media server and they get added automatically), it would be especially useful to be able to sort the list by "recently added" for example.

I have a feeling Track 5 is causing a problem with its special characters but I haven't been able to narrow it down definitively (even if I rename the track it doesn't work).

I'm new to using Plexamp and can't get it to find my music! I downloaded my music from SpotiFlac, and had it put in folders. My music is stored on my NAS and I tested the files to make sure they have the correct metadata and that they actually play, which they do. When I select a path for my library in Plex, I can see that it sees all my folders with music, but when I click OK, it still shows "Music" is empty. HELP PLEASE!!

https://preview.redd.it/u31gjneyo9bh1.png?width=955&format=png&auto=webp&s=617414b86ce82f3d64b1e852276bc6966ac75367

https://preview.redd.it/17j6yqx5p9bh1.png?width=1113&format=png&auto=webp&s=45c9f84adbf87e69644ab7a4f53da9e137b9da60

https://preview.redd.it/d14czcx8p9bh1.png?width=550&format=png&auto=webp&s=c1d03b8ea8c258a46ca62a463982e300568484e3

I may be late to the NFC sticker game, but I wanted a way to link any physical album to any streaming service.

The idea: NFC stickers with pre-embedded short links. You stick one on an album, assign it once, and the system finds that album across all the streaming services. Set it and forget it. From then on, tapping the sticker with your phone opens a link page where you're one click from the album — and there's a setting to skip the link page entirely and jump straight to your preferred service.

Full transparency: I built this myself and I think the system is working, but I need real people to kick the tires. I'd love to send free sample stickers to anyone willing to test it and tell me honestly whether this idea has legs. Mostly I'm hoping to find other people who love physical media but live in streaming apps, and see if there's a community here.

Edit. Seemed to be solved/working now.

Not sure if this is the right place but I'll post it over at r/plex as well I guess.

I've been running Plex for music for years without issues. Suddenly, any new albums I add show no album art — just the artist poster or blank. Old albums are fine.

Settings:

• Prefer local metadata: On
• Album Art: Local Files Only (also tried Local & Plex)
• Using embedded art + cover.jpg/folder.jpg

What I've tried:

• Full server restarts
• Refresh Metadata / Analyze / Scan Library Files
• Clean Bundles + Optimize Database
• Fixed permissions recursively on Music folder
• Removed/re-added albums (including previously working ones)
• Tested in a brand new Music library (works perfectly there)
• No hidden files, manual cover.jpg works if I edit the album manually

The main library's scanner just isn't picking up
local art on new content anymore. Logs show UltraBlurProcessor decode failures, metadata matching issues, and "unknown metadata type: folder".

Plex 1.43.2.10687 on latest macOS, library on external volume (~3TB music).

Anyone seen this before or have ideas beyond what I've tried? Thanks!

I’ve been testing this idea out for the past few weeks, and it’s starting to come together. I love Plexamp, but I’ve noticed that once a music library gets big enough, I still end up listening to the same albums, artists, and playlists over and over. Meanwhile, there are old favorites, forgotten albums, and random deep cuts sitting in my own library that I barely rediscover.
So I started building a small iOS companion app for Plex music users. This isn’t meant to replace Plexamp at all—it’s already great for playback. Instead, this is more of a rediscovery and playlist-building layer for your own Plex music library.

Right now, I’m mostly testing the waters to see if people would actually be interested. I’ve even integrated Lidarr and Spotify as optional features, and I’m still working through some bugs, but I’m getting close.

The app focuses on a few core “cards” or tabs:

Deep Cuts: This is a rediscovery tab that surfaces albums from your own library that you haven’t listened to in a while. It shows you when you last played each album, helping you reconnect with music you’ve forgotten about. It scans your library and refreshes these suggestions every 7 days so it always feels fresh.

Discovery: This tab suggests albums that AI thinks you might like based on your existing library. It generates a small set of albums (currently three at a time) with links to YouTube so you can quickly listen. You can favorite albums here, and if you have Lidarr configured, you can send them straight to your wanted list.

Explore: This is more of a search-driven discovery tool. You can type in an artist, album, or song, and it will return similar albums and recommendations, helping you branch out from something you already enjoy.

Collection: This tab breaks down your library and gives you a fun “curator score” based on your collection. It highlights stats about your music and lets you earn badges, making your library feel more like something you’re actively building and curating.

Playlist Creator: This lets you generate playlists by typing in almost anything, like “4am gym session” or “rainy day indie.” It builds a playlist using music from your own server and saves it directly to Plexamp, making it easy to jump right in.
All of these features are probably about 80% of the way there, but I’m super excited about how it’s shaping up.

Would anyone here actually use something like this? What would make it useful enough for you to try?

Just discovered this 2 days ago... WAS subscribed to Playris, but that thing is too buggy for me so i had to dump it.

Caldera is exactly what I was looking for. Essentially a Plexamp application that works on Apple TV. Simple interface, easy search, premium audio quality, even has a working milkdrop visualizer (Playris says it has it, but i could never figure out how to make it work).

Oh, and it's a free application to boot.

Hi all,
I recently set up a 2011 Mac mini with Proxmox to expand my option for running Home Assistant properly along with some other services I use.
I've created a Ubuntu LXC and installed headless. I have a Topping USB DAC connected to the Mac Mini.

In the web interface for the new Plexamp instance, in Settings - Playback - Audio Output - Audio Device there is nothing listed at all. Playback fails.

In previous install I don't recall this problem. Does the Ubuntu LXC need a driver for the Topping DAC, or do I need to set default audio output somewhere?