Chora v1.29

I should release updates more frequently, sorry everyone! I'm working on this app on my free time so please be patient!
This release is a big one in terms of UI and UX improvements for users on mobile!

Changelog

• Updated more elements to Material 3 Expressive.
• Synced lyrics are now centered
• Added the ability to change the alignment of the text in now-playing screen
• Completely refactored every screen to use scaffold and TopAppBar
• Font sizing and spacing made to be consistent app-wide
• Added sorting to the albums screen
• Show track number in albums (#49)
• Added albums, songs and artists to Android auto (#54) [May be slow to load!]
• Added ability to download whole albums
• Downloading now uses Android's DownloadManager
• Add loading indicator for lyrics
• Fix some synced lyrics first letter being clipped off.
• Merge pull request #45
• A bunch of other smaller stuff

Known Issues

• Playing radios from Android Auto will STILL not set any metadata. I have no clue how to fix this lol.
• Android TV search is kinda broken, will be fixed next update

❤️ Thank you to everyone who donated!

Note: Updates through Google Play are delayed from GitHub releases because of the review process.

Chora v1.28

After a short break I'm now back to working on this! Learnt quite a bit about how to architecture apps, so this release was mostly a bug-fix release, fixing almost all of the biggest problems in the app!

Changelog:

• Target SDK is now 36 (Android 16)
• Rewrote most parts of the data handling to be faster, cache more, and generally be easier to maintain going forward.
• Rewrote the local folder provider, now avoiding duplicate albums and artists.
• Images now cache correctly, fixing cache sizes getting out of hand.
• Images are now loaded at more optimal resolutions, avoiding excessive network usage and improving performance while browsing.
• UI changes mainly affecting the search bar in the albums, songs and artists views.
• Updated some elements to Material 3 Expressive.
• Added an effect on reload because it's seriously cool. (Android 13+)
• Added a setting to change the transcoding format.
• Changed the default transcoding format to OPUS instead of MP3.
• Added the play queue in the now-playing screen.
• Various other UI changes making the experience smoother and more polished that i can't list here.

Known Issues:

• Playing radios from Android Auto will STILL not set any metadata. I have no clue how to fix this lol.

Note: Updates through Google Play are delayed from GitHub releases because of the review process.

Chora v1.28 Prerelease

Changelog:

• Rewrote most parts of the data handling to be faster, cache more, and generally be easier to maintain going forward.
• Rewrote the local folder provider, now avoiding duplicate albums and artists.
• Images now cache correctly, fixing cache sizes getting out of hand.
• Images are now loaded at more normal resolutions depending on the type, avoiding excessive network usage and improving performance while browsing.
• Transcoding now uses OPUS codec.
• UI changes mainly affecting the search bar in the albums, songs and artists views.
• Updated to beta Material 3 Expressive, elements now have more animations.
• Added an effect on reload because it's seriously cool. (Android 12+)
• Added the play queue in the now-playing screen.
• Various other UI changes making the experience smoother and more polished that i can't list here.

Roadmap Before Release:

• Make the play queue reorderable.
• Add a setting for the refresh animation.
• Add a setting for the transcoding codec.
• Generate lower-quality version of the album art for local items.
• Better handle switching between multiple Navidrome servers.

Known Issues:

• Playing radios from Android Auto will STILL not set metadata correctly (empty cover art).
• Playing local files with high resolution artwork will cause the app to lag a bit.

Chora v1.27.1

Changelog:

Fixed crashing when changing bottom navigation order. #35
Implemented changing the app's language from the system settings. (Settings > System > Languages & Input > App Languages > Chora)
Minor changes in playlist handling.

Known Issues:

• After changing some settings, all the data is cleared from screens and need to be manually refreshed.
• Playing radios from Android Auto will not set metadata correctly (empty cover art).

Note: Updates through Google Play are delayed from GitHub releases because of the review process.

Chora v1.27

Changelog:

• Dividers for lists based on provider, togglable in settings.
• New Artist details screen, discography based on release year of album. Fixes #33
• Star/Unstar Album support.
• Favourite/Starred songs playlist.
• Better playlist management. Fixes #32
• Fixed local playlist artwork
• Optimized lyrics updates and accuracy.
• Improved media controls.
• Local file support: fixed genres, added album art placeholders.
• Radios now CORRECTLY get the metadata of the currently playing song.
• Disable buttons when unsupported.
• UI/UX improvements.

Known Issues:

• After changing some settings, all the data is cleared from screens and need to be manually refreshed.
• Playing radios from Android Auto will not set metadata correctly (empty cover art).

Note: Updates through Google Play are delayed from GitHub releases because of the review process.

Chora v1.26.1

Small bug-fix release this time, sorry for the last release, the update through Google Play got rejected. Should be approved in the following days now. Nevermind, it got rejected again.

Changelog:

• Fixed radios not changing the now-playing screen.
• Fixed first song playing after playing a radio.
• Disabled caching the ping endpoint for Subsonic/Navidrome.

Known Issues:

• After changing some settings, all the data is cleared from screens and need to be manually refreshed.

Navidrome's BFR has NOT been tested yet.
Note: Updates through Google Play are delayed from GitHub releases because of the review process.

Chora v1.26

⭐ Thank you for 100 stars!

Changelog:

• Disable lyrics button when there are no lyrics available.
• Disable selecting the animated background on Android 12 and older.
• Tweaked lyrics animations.
• Keep screen on when now-playing is expanded (will be toggle-able in the settings in the next release)
• Implemented replay-gain property from Subsonic/Navidrome.
• Cache network requests to reduce data usage.
• Added exit button for Android TV.
• Made the navigation bar scrollable in landscape mode and TV.
• Lowered the minimum Android version to Android 6.
• Attempt to fix #21.
• Fixed albums list crashes, songs list duplicated local songs after scroll
• Fixed asking multiple permission on app start on Android 13+.
• Fixed tons of other smaller bugs, and other stuff i probably forgot to mention here.

Known issues:

• After changing some settings, all the data is cleared from screens and need to be manually refreshed.
• After selecting a radio, selecting an album always plays the first song.

Note: Updates through Google Play are delayed from GitHub releases because of the review process.

Chora v1.25

Changelog:

• Add: Theme selector. #14
• Add: Separate bitrate selectors for wifi and mobile data. #19
• Add: Leanback launcher for Android TV. #20
• Change: Modified animated now-playing background.
• Change: Various UI tweaks.
• Fix: Enable/disable navidrome servers in providers list.
• Fix: Downloading from Navidrome.
• Fix: Reduce recompositions and overdraw - Improved performance.
• Complete Android Auto overhaul.

Known issues:

• Local radios and playlists do not save reliably.
• May lag when changing songs.

⚠️ To download songs, you may need to manually allow notifications in the settings.

Note: Updates through Google Play are delayed from GitHub releases because of the review process.

Chora v1.24.1

Minor bug-fix release.

Changelog:

• Fixed the order which the app gets lyrics. It's now correct:
  Navidrome Synced > Navidrome Plain > LRCLIB.net
• Fixed playlists not working
• Fixed "now playing" screen for landscape also appearing on portrait.
• Playlist UI changes to fit in with the rest of the app

Known issues

• Download button still doesn't work.

Note: Updates through Google Play are delayed from GitHub releases because of the review process.

Chora v1.24

^{We are so back.}
Lots of changes since the last release, so I'll try my best to write them all, this list may be incomplete!
Releases will be a bit more often now, probably once a month if i can.

Frontend changes

• UI design changes.
• Completely overhauled now playing screen for Android TV, closing #13.
• Fixed navigation with remote on Android TV, closing #16.
• Fixed format and bitrate options always being 0 or null.
• New animated background inspired by Cephalopod Studio Aurora Background. It's less resource intensive and better on battery life.
  Note: Blur and Animated backgrounds don't blur at all on Android 11, and will possibly be deprecated in a future release.
• Icons in the now playing screen will automatically switch to dark or light mode depending on the album image.

Backend changes

• Rewrote radio parsing code, from XML to JSON.
• Organized the crappy code of this app to make it easier to understand.
• (partially, it's still WIP) overhauled save and loading preferences and options to be more reliable and faster to load.
• Optimized image loading.
• Added self-signed certificates support, closing #9.

Known issues

• Download button does not work.
• App crashes when internet connection is lost or Subsonic/Navidrome server goes down while the app is open.
• On tablets, the UI has padding on the bottom where it shouldn't.

Note: Updates through Google Play are delayed from GitHub releases because of the review process.