Tempus Music Player v4.27.0

Tempus Music Player is an open-source, privacy-focused Android music client for Subsonic-compatible servers. It is designed for people who maintain their own music library and want a polished native Android app for streaming and offline playback rather than relying on a commercial music service.

Tempus is a fork of Tempo and is released under the GPL-3.0 license.

Tempus connects directly to your Subsonic server and gives you access to your own music collection from Android.

It supports:

• Music streaming

• Offline playback

• Multiple libraries

• Playlists

• Search and browsing

• Gapless playback

• ReplayGain

• Transcoding

• Internet radio

• Podcasts

• Scrobbling

• Equalizers

• Android widgets

• Android Auto

• Chromecast

Key Features of Tempus Music Player

Subsonic Integration

The core purpose of Tempus is accessing a self-hosted Subsonic music library.

It supports browsing by:

• Artists

• Albums

• Genres

• Playlists

• Decades

• Search

This makes it a good client for servers such as Navidrome and other Subsonic-compatible implementations.

Streaming and Offline Playback

You can stream music directly from your server and download music for offline listening.

Offline functionality is still being actively developed, and the project notes that there can be limitations when using multiple servers.

Gapless Playback

Tempus supports gapless playback, making it appropriate for albums where tracks are intended to flow continuously without pauses.

ReplayGain

ReplayGain support provides:

• Volume normalization

• Preamp adjustment

• Clipping prevention

when the relevant ReplayGain metadata is available in your music library.

Transcoding

Tempus can request transcoding from the Subsonic server.

This allows the server to convert tracks into a format or bitrate appropriate for the Android device or network connection.

This is particularly useful when your original library contains large lossless files and you don't want to stream them at full size over mobile data.

Multiple Libraries

Tempus supports multiple Subsonic libraries and presents them as library folders.

This is useful if your server exposes multiple music collections.

Instant Mix

The application includes an Instant Mix feature that uses Subsonic's similarity APIs, including similarSongs2 and similarSongs, to build larger play queues.

This provides some automatic music discovery without turning Tempus into a Spotify-style recommendation service.

Last.fm and ListenBrainz

Tempus can optionally scrobble played tracks to Last.fm or ListenBrainz, provided the Subsonic backend supports the necessary functionality.

This is entirely optional, which fits well with the project's privacy-focused philosophy.

Podcasts and Internet Radio

Tempus isn't limited to music.

It can play podcasts when supported by the Subsonic server, and it can search and save Internet radio stations locally even when the backend doesn't provide radio API support.

GitHub vs F-Droid / de-Googled Version

This is one of the more interesting aspects of Tempus.

The project provides different APK variants:

GitHub app-tempus

• Android Auto

• Chromecast

• Full feature set

app-degoogled

• Google-free

• Available through IzzyOnDroid

• 32-bit and 64-bit APKs are available on GitHub

The developer explicitly recommends the GitHub version if you want full Android Auto and Chromecast support.

So if you're specifically looking for a de-Googled Subsonic client, Tempus has a particularly attractive option.

Pros

• Open source.

• GPL-3.0 licensed.

• Privacy focused.

• Native Android application.

• Excellent Subsonic integration.

• Works with self-hosted music libraries.

• Streaming.

• Offline playback.

• Gapless playback.

• ReplayGain.

• Server-side transcoding.

• Multiple libraries.

• Playlists.

• Instant Mix.

• Last.fm integration.

• ListenBrainz integration.

• Podcasts.

• Internet radio.

• Equalizer support.

• Android widget.

• Android Auto support.

• Chromecast support.

• De-Googled build available.

• 32-bit and 64-bit APKs.

• Active development.

Cons

• Requires a Subsonic-compatible music server.

• Offline functionality is still being actively developed.

• Multiple-server offline behavior has limitations.

• Chromecast implementation is still described as rudimentary.

• Android Auto and Chromecast are only in the GitHub version.

• Not intended as a standalone music service.

• Some features depend on capabilities provided by the Subsonic backend.

Final Verdict

Tempus Music Player is one of the more compelling open-source Android clients for the Subsonic ecosystem.

Its combination of self-hosted music, offline playback, gapless audio, ReplayGain, transcoding, multiple libraries, Android Auto, Chromecast, and de-Googled builds makes it considerably more capable than a basic Subsonic player.

If you already run a Subsonic-compatible server, Tempus is an easy recommendation. The main reason not to use it would be if you need a feature that depends on a backend API Tempus doesn't currently support, or if you prefer a more mature alternative with a different UI.