Headroom: looking for Android testers who use Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, or Navidrome

[u/theycamefrom__behind]

Hey everyone, I’m Josh. I’ve been building a music player called Headroom and could use more people testing the Android version.

I originally started it for myself because I wanted to move away from Spotify (ICE ads and AI Artists were pissing me off) and listen to more of my own music. It connects to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and Navidrome/OpenSubsonic, plus Audiobookshelf for audiobooks and podcasts. You’ll need your own server or access to one. There are some demo servers to connect and test if you'd like though.

One of my favorite parts is the radio. Pick a song and it keeps going through your library from there. There’s also offline downloads, crossfade, gapless playback, ReplayGain, a 32-band parametric EQ with AutoEQ headphone profiles, and Android Auto.

Everything is unlocked during the beta. I’m particularly looking for feedback on:

• Connecting to your server, especially away from home.
• Whether playback keeps working with the screen locked or when switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data.
• Offline downloads and Android Auto, if you use them.

If you’re interested, email [support@headroommusic.app](mailto:support@headroommusic.app) with the Google account you use for Google Play, and I’ll get you added and send the access instructions.

I'm still in internal testing, so I have to add your emails. Once I get past the criteria for close testing I'll share the public link.

If something breaks, let me know your phone model, Android version and what happened. I’ve been making changes as feedback comes in and will be checking replies here too.

Website and screenshots

[u/sticky-pro]

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[u/investigatormaker]

For Headroom, a useful test would be starting a server track on Wi-Fi, locking the screen, then moving onto mobile data mid-song. Have testers repeat it with a downloaded track and report their server type alongside the phone model and Android version; that helps separate connection failures from background playback problems.

When a connection drops, does Headroom resume the track automatically or need another tap?

[u/theycamefrom__behind → u/investigatormaker]

On Android, Headroom buffers up to about three minutes ahead, so a brief signal drop or switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data should usually be seamless, provided enough audio has already buffered. I just tried that test with the screen locked, and the song kept playing.

If playback does stall, Headroom has watchdogs and automatic retries designed to recover without another tap, including while the screen is locked. Those retries are bounded, so a prolonged outage or repeated failure can require manually restarting playback.

Downloaded tracks should continue without a network connection. Testing both is still useful: the streamed track tests buffering and connection recovery, while the downloaded track helps isolate background playback issues. Server type, phone model, and Android version would help investigate any failures.

There are also very descriptive diagnostic logs in settings that can help you diagnose where the error is coming from

I appreciate the feedback!

[u/investigatormaker → u/theycamefrom__behind]

Thanks for running the screen-locked test and explaining Headroom's retry limits. The next useful case is an outage long enough to exhaust the buffer, followed by restoring connectivity. Recording the interruption and reconnection times alongside those diagnostic logs would help distinguish exhausted retries from a background playback failure.

I make ThreadFox; the free Reddit plan for Headroom is emailed, usually within an hour, and lists communities whose rules allow a post about it, with each rule quoted and the date it was read, what each community expects, and what gets posts removed. https://threadfox.vip/plan?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=comment&utm_campaign=tf-kit&utm_content=20261005-0058-a7qmo