Linthra
Your music, your server.
Linthra is an open-source music player for people who keep their music on
their own devices or self-hosted servers. Android is the mature mobile target,
and native Linux desktop support is now available for early testing. Linthra
plays local files and streams from your own Jellyfin, Navidrome / Subsonic, or
Plex server. No ads, no tracking, no account.
Features
- Plays music from a folder on your phone. Uses the Android folder picker, so
it never asks for a broad storage permission.
- Streams from your own Jellyfin, Navidrome / Subsonic, or Plex server.
Streaming is the default and nothing is downloaded automatically.
- Offline cache: download the tracks you want, Wi-Fi only by default, with a
size limit and "Keep offline" pinning.
- Chromecast, implemented in pure Dart. No Google Play Services needed.
- Android Auto.
- Queue, playlists and favorites. Playlists and hearts sync both ways with
Jellyfin and Navidrome, and also work without a server.
- Smart mixes (recently played, most played, never played). Built from
listening data that stays on the device.
- Background playback with lock-screen, Bluetooth and headset controls,
shuffle, repeat, and synced lyrics.
- Themes and launcher icon switching.
Each of these has its own page in the docs.
Two builds
Linthra comes in two flavours. The F-Droid build is fully free and open: no
account, no proprietary unlock code, all the music features, and the built-in
themes (Classic, Neon, Gold, and Black & White). That's the complete player,
and it stays free.
The GitHub Sponsor build has everything the F-Droid one has, plus the custom
colour palette for supporters. You get it from GitHub Releases, and it unlocks
when you sponsor the project for at least $3 USD per month.
Why isn't the palette on F-Droid, even as a paid option? Because I want the F-Droid build to stay fully libre: no paywalled features, no code that phones a proprietary service like GitHub. That's what an F-Droid build should be, and I'd rather keep it clean than bend it. So the F-Droid build gives you the complete player for free, and the custom palette lives in the GitHub build for supporters.
And it's not DRM. Linthra is open source. If you really want the palette, you
can clone the repo and build it yourself. The $3 isn't locking you out; it's a
way to support the project and get the official supporter build without the
hassle. If Linthra is useful to you, sponsoring genuinely helps: it tells me the
work matters and keeps me building it. And if you just want a clean libre player
with no account, the F-Droid build is yours, free, for good.
Screenshots
| Welcome | Choose your source | Now Playing |
|---|
| | |
| Branding | Offline downloads | About v0.2.0 |
|---|
| | |
Install
New versions land on
GitHub Releases first, as
signed Android APKs, a native Linux x64 archive (since v0.2.2) and, from the
next stable release, an installable Linux .flatpak bundle. The
current stable is v0.2.11. Linthra is also on
F-Droid; F-Droid
builds may arrive a bit later while their build and review process runs. Not on
Google Play yet.
Don't mix Android install sources. GitHub APKs and F-Droid builds are
signed with different keys and can't update each other. Pick one and stick
with it.
To install from GitHub Releases and get Android updates, use
Obtainium:
- Install Obtainium.
- Tap Add App and paste the source URL:
https://github.com/thezupzup/linthra
- Install the latest release. Obtainium handles updates from then on. (Enable
"Include prereleases" only if you want to test pre-release builds.)
Or download the .apk from the
latest release and open
it on your phone.
For Linux, the easiest install is the .flatpak bundle on the same Release
(Linthra-<tag>-x86_64.flatpak). Open it with a software centre that handles
Flatpak bundles, or install it from a terminal:
flatpak install --user Linthra-<tag>-x86_64.flatpak
It brings its own GTK and libmpv, so there is nothing else to install, and
Linthra appears in the application launcher like any other app. Linthra is
not on Flathub yet; this bundle is the recommended install until it is.
The native archive Linthra-<tag>-linux-x64.tar.gz is still published for
anyone who wants the plain build. It needs the runtime packages listed in
docs/linux-desktop.md, which also covers both
install routes and native development.
Notes:
Supported sources
| Source | Status |
|---|
| Local files | ✅ Scan a folder, play directly (SAF, no broad permission) (docs) |
| Jellyfin | ✅ Stream, cache, cast, playlists & favorites (docs) |
| Navidrome / Subsonic | ✅ Stream, cache, cast, lyrics, playlists & favorites, two-way sync (docs) |
| Plex | ✅ Browse, stream & cache from your own Plex Media Server (docs) |
| WebDAV / NAS | 📝 Designed, not built yet: the implementation-ready design is in webdav.md, behind the same MusicSource interface |
Privacy
Linthra does not send telemetry or analytics.
- Bug reports are built locally and only sent if you open the prefilled issue
yourself.
- Downloads only happen when you start them.
- Minimal permissions: playback, notifications and network. Picking a folder
needs no storage permission. The optional "All music on this device" mode
asks only when you choose it: for Android's "Music and audio" permission on
Android 13+, or the older storage permission on Android 12 and below, which
covers more than music.
- The server password is used once to get a token, then discarded. The token
is stored encrypted and never logged. The one exception is Subsonic's opt-in
legacy sign-in for servers like Nextcloud Music that refuse tokens: it keeps
the password encrypted on the device and only works over https.
Details are in PRIVACY.md and the provider docs.
Contributing
Testing against your own server, screenshots, and doc fixes are useful
contributions, not just code. CONTRIBUTING.md covers
setup. The contributor roadmap lists where
help is needed. To support development, see
docs/SUPPORT.md.
Roadmap
See docs/roadmap.md. In short: keep Android stable, deepen
the native Linux desktop experience, and finish Flatpak/Flathub packaging while
continuing backup/restore and optional Linthra Connect work. Linthra always
works on its own: no Docker, no account, no required pairing.
Documentation
Everything is indexed in docs/README.md: setup,
architecture, and a page per feature.
License
AGPL-3.0-or-later
Linthra moved from MPL-2.0 to AGPL-3.0-or-later. Releases published before that
change — up to and including v0.2.4 — remain under the MPL-2.0 terms they
were published under; that text is preserved at
docs/licenses/MPL-2.0.txt. See
docs/license-transition.md.
Vendored third-party code in third_party/ keeps its own upstream license.
