Phone app

[agdamsbo]

Hi. So I have been following along for quite some time. The other day I stumpled upon the android-squeezer Android app. This has opened some new very nice features for me. The android-squeezer app is intended as a LMS server remote control, but as MA is acting as an LMS server (as far as I understand), it also allows me to remote control playback on my different speakers and groups both from the app, but also outside the app, as it runs in the background. It is really good. It does not, however allow me to browse my library, which I would really like. I also have the HA-app, which of course allows for managing playback as well, but not as easily. Would it be possible to allow for browsing the library in an app like this? Or fork or modify the android-squeezer (apache 2.0 license) to make it compatible with MA?
Thank you for your great work! After b83, the experience is really great and quick playback actions. Thanks!

[OzGav]

There is currently a desktop app, mobile apps will be somewhere down the road. Note that the current frontend does adapt to mobile screen sizes. What is the frontend not doing that this other app is doing?

[teranex]

...What is the frontend not doing that this other app is doing?

Having an Android app would be nice as it would allow integration with the notification + volume system, which makes it easier to quickly pause/resume playback on the target device and change the volume of that device.

[NMBRPL8]

Yes please!! I've also been hunting for some way to get this as a standalone android app, or at least as a dashboard component rather than its own tab on the sidebar on ha. Iframe is not ideal... Having control via the android device physical buttons, and playback on the device also opens up Bluetooth playback in the car, on the go, just opens up the options significantly.

[pjoester]

Music Assistant seems to be a very promising project. One of the major things that prevents me switching from LMS to Music Assistant is that there is no way to use my physical volume buttons of my android phone. I use "Squeeze Ctrl" and I can adjust the volume while the phone screen is off. With Squeeze Ctrl Android also gets details about the media playback and one can see it on the standby/locked screen.

I dont' know if its possible to integrate such features directly into the Home Assistant App or if a standalone app is necessary. It would be great if one of these options could be possible in the future. Thanks for the awesome work!

[Vendo233]

I would be interested in standalone android apl as well

[jpbaril]

@agdamsbo How did you get to have this work (for at least playback control)?

The app supposedly found by itself my MA instance at http://homeassistantIP:9000 but then nothing is shown.

Thanks

[agdamsbo]

I think the underlying use of Logitech Media Server changed some time ago. I am not able to use the squeezer app anymore. I recently bought an IKEA TRETAKT plug with a remote. When paired with HA yhe remote works well for basic music control and the plug is great as a ZigBee router to extend coverage.

[jpbaril]

Okay, I understand why nothing was shown. What I found is that this Android-Squeezer remote app does not control the server itself, rather it controls the individual Squeeze clients currently connected to that server..
So in my case it is useless as I don't intend to have Squeeze clients.

[tvdruenen]

If you use Home Assistant as well next to Music Assistant, it works very well to add Music Assistant as a Home Assistant Dashboard.

This way you can access your Music Assistant library and controls directly from the Home Assistant UI and Companion apps. The UI scales properly on mobile phones.

Combining it with HACS plugins makes the controls even more easily accessible in your favourite existing dashboards:

• https://github.com/piitaya/lovelace-mushroom/blob/main/docs/cards/media-player.md, or
• https://github.com/kalkih/mini-media-player

[formatBCE]

It scales, but inconvenient as heck. Okay for web, but on mobile there's much better layouts possible.

[formatBCE]

So did anyone start doing it?
If not, I might start. Just don't want to do a monkey job, if someone is already about to publish it.

I could start it on KMP, that would allow both Android and iOS.

[OzGav]

That would be great, You should start a thread in the devs support first to get some advice from Marcel https://discord.com/channels/753947050995089438/1260489193763639338

[formatBCE]

That would be great, You should start a thread in the devs support first to get some advice from Marcel https://discord.com/channels/753947050995089438/1260489193763639338

Oh yeah will ask him now.

[saarea]

I'm really new to both home assistant and music assistant but this project has blown my mind. It's truly amazing.

Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in here... I have no issue using music assistant but getting the rest of the family or guests to use it is a tough sell without an app. Getting them to log in via home assistant is scary for them and they don't really want to use it in a browser. If you had a dedicated app (even if it just wraps the web interface) it would be much easier to spread adoption.

Thank you all and keep up the great work!

[formatBCE]

Well I just saved MA web page to shortcut, it looks like application on Android..:)

[saarea]

It looks like it... but it isn't, is it? I can't wait to explain to my wife and parents how "it's just like an app". "They look just like real diamonds, my love"

[formatBCE]

It looks like it... but it isn't, is it? I can't wait to explain to my wife and parents how "it's just like an app". "They look just like real diamonds, my love"

Mobile app is in work. It's working, but there's no APK ready to install yet. You can checkout the repo and install it, if you have experience with Android Studio. :)

[prestonsmartuk]

Well I just saved MA web page to shortcut, it looks like application on Android..:)

How are you doing this on Android? I'm trying to do the MA page as a shortcut, but every time I open the shortcut it opens up my default Home Assistant dashboard instead of Music Assistant

[formatBCE]

Well I just saved MA web page to shortcut, it looks like application on Android..:)

How are you doing this on Android? I'm trying to do the MA page as a shortcut, but every time I open the shortcut it opens up my default Home Assistant dashboard instead of Music Assistant

Oh, sorry, i have it in Docker, not as add-on. But i think you can use it via http://HA_IP:8095

[indykoning]

To add to this I would love the ability to use music assistant to play and control playback in Android auto.
So I could drop the native Spotify etc. app

[formatBCE]

I actually implemented all the things from this thread, except Android Auto so far. Case is, that connecting to MA needs VPN now, and Android Auto doesn't work while you're on VPN...

Yep, AA (Android Auto) would be beneficial. I do not have issues as of now with AA apps over VPN (ovpn) - Anyways, it took 'ages' to properly set the VPN server+profiles. :D

I did it, it works great.

[returnofthem]

Hey all, I've been looking for a solution to work around MA not having an Android app - and specifically one which provides media controls - and even more specifically one which works with Android Auto - so hearing something is in the works is great!

MA is an amazing system and I'd like to contribute back if I can.

I can't offer any coding skills, but if you'd like me to alpha/beta test anything related to an Android app being developed then I'd be happy to.

Edit: the AA + VPN case is an interesting one I could maybe help test as I'm already running a wireguard VPN. No problems with other AA apps with the VPN so far.

[formatBCE]

@returnofthem sure. Come to MA Discord, there's GPlay registration in progress. :)
https://discord.com/channels/753947050995089438/1343766783768789002

[returnofthem]

@formatBCE just tried following that link but it looks like I don't have access - I can join the main HA server but can't access whatever area that is.

[formatBCE]

@formatBCE just tried following that link but it looks like I don't have access - I can join the main HA server but can't access whatever area that is.

It's Music Assistant server, not HA.
https://discord.gg/Kaq5wJ62

[JiDW]

I'm wondering how paid providers would work in that setup. Most providers offer "duo" or "family" subscription options but right now anyone can use my Music Assistant with a single paid account but I think it is OK as long as it stays in the house. I would not like to see some providers cutting integrations because of some potential abuse so I'm a bit worried.

[JiDW]

I'm not worried about me directly. I'm concerned that if a Music Assistant phone app easily enables bypassing some provider limitation, their respective company may take action against MA compatibility.

I have no idea tho, I'm just trying to understand how things works in such case. I don't even know if you can stream from the same provider (let's say Spotify or Qobuz) on two different devices.

[OzGav]

Fair enough but I don’t think this is any different from someone using their Spotify app on one device and Qobuz on another. We take piracy and the circumvention of ads seriously and don’t do anything to enable that.

[JiDW]

Oh but I know you do, that's why I was wondering.
I probably wasn't clear in my use case:

My wife and I can both access HA and MA. We currently pay for a Duo subscription at Qobuz so we can each listen to music when on the road or at work.
On MA, we have my own Qobuz account as a music provider that we use for playing musics in the house.

My initial question was wondering how that would work, should we be able to have a Phone app to use MA outside the house, that's all.

[OzGav]

You can already do that now without the phone app by using the web player.

[formatBCE]

Frankly, with some setup (like VPN) you already can do this on any player. The fact that MA allows me using same Spotify account at home (via MA) and in the car (via Spotify app) simultaneously - is basically same violation (?).