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Headphones have been around forever. You can trace them back all the way to 1891. But headphones that are waterproof, well, that is a much more recent invention. Waterproof headphones arrived in our lives around 2015. Since then, only a handful of manufacturers have ventured into creating the best waterproof headphones for swimming. These differ from the best over-the-ear headphones, or noise canceling headphones, which may have some water resistance, but not enough to be deemed “waterproof.” For that, you want headphones that have at least an IP rating of IPX8 or higher. This means the headphones can withstand being submerged in at least one meters of water for up to a half hour.
Best music player apps for Android in 2023
Looking for a new music player app? Check out our round-up of the music apps you should use on your Android phone!
The way we listen to music on the go has changed a lot over the years, with the industry moving from an ownership model to a subscription model. Initially, you'd have to listen to music at a physical vinyl or CD setup. Then portable music players came around, and all the aforementioned options have been replicated — if not outright replaced — by modern-day smartphones. But regardless of whether you prefer to stream or own your music, there's an Android app designed for your listening pleasure. Since the app that comes with your smartphone might not be the best one available, we've curated a list of alternatives here.
S2 Music Player is a ground-up rewrite of Shuttle with a new design
S2 Music Player, a ground-up rewrite of the Shuttle Music Player, is now out of beta and officially available for everyone.
As music streaming has exploded in popularity, offline music players have naturally taken a backseat. But for those who don’t like to pay a monthly fee for streaming music, aren’t satisfied with the sound quality offered by these services, or are on a limited data plan, offline music is the way to go. If you are on the lookout for a feature-packed offline music player app, you might want to check out S2 Music Player from Tim Malseed.
GoneMAD Music Player gets a major update with a brand new UI
The GoneMAD Music Player 3.0 update is out of beta. It's a complete rewrite of the media player and has a brand new UI and many new features.
After spending four years in development, GoneMAD Music Player version 3.0 is out on the Google Play Store in the stable channel. GoneMAD MP 3.0 is a complete rewrite of the old media player and brings with it a brand new UI and many new features. It’s built on top of the same audio engine and includes all the features of the previous player while also adding some new ones such as Dynamic theming, Auto DJ, lyrics support, and more.
Shuttle Music Player gets a complete Kotlin rewrite with new beta app
Shuttle 2 (S2) is a complete rebuild of the Shuttle Music Player with a much more modern and focused design. Check out the app in early beta!
In the era dominated by music streaming services, some of us still like to play our music the good old way: through an offline music player. If you fall in that camp and are looking for a feature-rich yet modern music player, Android has no shortage of high-quality third-party music players. Shuttle Music Player is one such player that has been around for a while now, boasting 5+ million downloads on the Google Play Store and offering a host of functionalities in a sleek and compact package. Now, the developer of the app is back again with a new music player: Shuttle 2 (S2), a complete rebuild of the Shuttle Music Player with a much more modern and focused design.
Google Play Music has closed its mp3 store – here are your alternatives in 2020
Google has finally killed off its mp3 store on Google Play Music. If you are looking to download 320kbps music, here are your options in 2020!
Google has finally shuttered the Google Play Music Store, bringing sales of downloadable MP3s to an end. The move had been announced in August after Google's long and sometimes painful transition to its new streaming-only YouTube Music offering, though the option to upload your own library remains. The Google Play Music app remains active for most, but it too will be shuttered in the coming weeks, with full closure, globally by the end of the year.
Pandora update adds a dark theme and offline podcasts for Plus and Premium subscribers
Last year, the Pandora app got its first major revamp in a long time. The update did not include support for Android 10's dark theme, but now it does.
Last year, the Pandora app got its first major revamp in a long time. The app was looking a little outdated and the company hoped a refresh could breathe new life into the aging music streaming service. One feature that wasn't present in the redesign was a dark theme, despite many Android apps adding it at the time. Thankfully, that feature has finally arrived along with some other goodies.
Pandora revamps its Android app with an emphasis on personalization
Pandora's latest Android update shows the company is putting an emphasis on personalization. The new update includes a new "For You" tab.
There was a time when the name Pandora was synonymous with the streaming music industry. The company still holds strong brand recognition, but rising competition from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and others have caught the folks behind Pandora off guard. There has been some effort put into improving the streaming service and the latest Android update shows the company is putting an emphasis on personalization. The new update includes a new "For You" tab that is dedicated to showing you a constantly updated feed of audio content (both music as well as podcasts) based on your personal taste.
[Update: YouTube Music] Waze adds 7 new streaming services to in-app player
Waze has added 7 new audio streaming services. As of right now, this includes Pandora, Deezer, iHeartRadio, NPR One, Scribd, Stitcher, and TuneIn.
Many, many people have long commutes to work. This mostly happens around metro cities where people wake up and start their drive 2 or even 3 hours before they need to be at work. Rush hour traffic can be incredibly stressful (both going to and coming from work) so listening to some music can help make that time go by faster. Last year, the navigation application Waze announced integration with Spotify, one of, if not the, most popular online streaming music services. The team behind the application has had such a positive response from the community about this feature that they have now added support for 7 new streaming services directly in the application.
Poweramp 3.0 Overview - Android's Most Powerful Music Player is Still Kicking [Giveaway]
Poweramp is one of the most popular and powerful music players on Android, and it's gotten even better in version 3.0. Here's an overview and a giveaway.
Many people these days have switched over to music streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, or YouTube Music. Long gone are the days for many when their phone used to be filled to the brim with MP3 files, as streaming has become so much more convenient for many, myself included. Still, there are times when locally stored music has its own advantages over streamed media. For example, you can store files in FLAC format, a lossless codec which promises the highest sound quality possible. Files are larger, sure, but they sound better on higher quality headsets and speakers. That's without getting into the data usage of streaming media, even if you can save songs locally on your service of choice as well. If you prefer to use locally stored media, then you'll need a music player for that, which is where Poweramp comes in.
Libre Music is a FOSS music player for Android that supports CUE sheets
Libre Music supports CUE sheets, which makes music organization easier. The app supports MP3, FLAC, WAV, and more audio file types.
The Play Store is home to tons of great music players, but there's always room for more. XDA Junior Member dannydamsky was annoyed by the lack of free music apps with CUE sheet support. They decided to solve the problem by releasing Libre Music, a free and open source media player with CUE sheet support.
[Update: Available again] Huawei devices can no longer download VLC from Play Store because of EMUI's aggressive background restrictions
A number of recent Huawei devices can no longer download VLC from the Google Play Store, thanks to EMUI's aggressive background restrictions.
Huawei's reputation with developers is going from bad to worse thanks to VLC player. Because of EMUI's aggressive background restrictions, VLC would randomly stop playing audio when in the background. As a result, the developers have blacklisted numerous Huawei devices from installing it from the Google Play Store. This is thanks to the application receiving many 1-star reviews from device owners who did not know it was caused by their phone. You can still sideload the APK from their website just fine, however. You just can't see it on the Google Play Store.
Omnia Music Player is a new Material Design audio player with Google Cast and Android Auto support
Omnia Music Player is a new Material Design audio player with support for APE lossless media format, Google Cast, Android Auto and more. Read on!
Music Players are a dime a dozen on the Google Play Store, but good music players are rarer. There are a bunch of popular players that have built up their fan following over the years, but it doesn't hurt to have more options. With that in mind, meet Omnia Music Player, a new audio player with Material Design, Google Cast and Android Auto support, and more.
Deux - Dual Audio Player - lets you sync and mix two songs at once
Deux - Dual Audio Player by XDA Member KHSH01 lets you play two songs simultaneously, allowing you to sync and mix audio. Read on to know more!
If you have ever wanted to play two audio tracks simultaneously on your Android smartphone and wondered how you could do it, you can try out XDA Member KHSH01's Deux - Dual Audio Player app. The app allows you to play two music tracks in sync, such as a vocal track over an instrumental.
TimberX is a Material Theme music player app that supports Wear OS, Android Auto, Google Assistant, and more
TimberX supports a number of different devices and platforms, including Android (naturally), Android Auto, Wear OS, Chromecast, and Google Assistant.
It can be difficult to find a music player application that not only looks good but is also compatible across a number of different platforms. It seems XDA Senior Member naman14 felt the same and has recently released their music player application called TimberX. It follows a number of Google's Material Design guidelines and supports a number of different devices and platforms, including Android (naturally), Android Auto, Wear OS, Chromecast, and Google Assistant.
Popular music player Poweramp reaches v3 with new design and audio engine
After being in the works for a long time, the Poweramp version 3 beta redesign is finally stable and available in the Play Store right now.
Poweramp is a free and incredibly popular music player available in the Play Store. With over 50 million downloads and an average of 4.4-star reviews, it has become the music player of choice for many, many people. Not everyone prefers music streaming services like Spotify, YouTube Music, Pandora, or Apple Music, so Poweramp has given people an application for local music playback that comes with a lot of features. However, it hasn't been much of a looker in the UI department, but their version 3 beta redesign is finally stable and available in the Play Store right now.
Spotify now lets you download 10,000 tracks per device
The rules have changed from limiting paying Spotify customers from 3,333 songs on 3 devices to 10,000 tracks per device for up to 5 devices.
Companies in a lot of markets like to point their finger at piracy when it comes to a drop in sales. However, many people turn to piracy due to price and convenience. We have watched Gabe Newell turn millions of gaming pirates into loyal buyers and some would say the CEO of Spotify, Daniel Ek, did something similar when he left as the CEO of μTorrent and shifted his expertise over to the music industry. Still, not everyone is happy with the limitations that Spotify has with its service, but one of those limitations has just been increased more than threefold.
1 Lyrics shows you lyrics for songs in Google Play Music, Spotify, and more
1 Lyrics shows you lyrics for songs playing in Google Play Music, Spotify, and more. Check it out here for some screenshots and a download link!
It's always annoying when you find a cool Android app but it doesn't just work. Maybe it has some extra feature baked in that messes up the whole app, such as an abundance of advertisements or other needless features. This is especially frustrating when you're looking for something simple, like a lyrics app. "1 Lyrics" on XDA Labs is a new application that does exactly you want. A simple overlay can be displayed over any app with the lyrics of the song you're currently listening to. It works perfectly with Google Play Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and more!
Spotify is testing a sleep timer, but only for podcasts
A set of four screenshots of the Spotify application has been leaked, thanks to @wongmjane, where it shows a sleep timer option, but only for podcasts.
There are a lot of online music streaming services to choose from right now. The more popular options include the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora, Tidal, and YouTube Music. With this much competition going on it pushes each company to improve their platform and innovate whenever possible so they have a unique feature the competition doesn't have. Spotify added support for podcasts, video, and context-based listening back in 2015, and their podcast selection keeps growing. Some leaked screenshots indicate that the developers over at Spotify are working on adding a sleep timer to their application, but one that only works with podcasts.
Google fixes Play Music library issues in Google Assistant
Google has finally fixed the Google Assistant so that it can play purchased and uploaded music from your Google Play Music library on Google Home.
Google has finally fixed one of the biggest annoyances with the Google Assistant in recent months. For whatever reason, while the Google Assistant (and the Google Home) could play music, you couldn't play your uploaded or purchased songs on Google Play Music. It's a huge issue for those with devices that portray themselves as home entertainment devices such as the Google Home Max. Not being able to play your own music is a pretty big issue, but Google has finally fixed it. Previously, it was very limited in terms of what you could actually listen to as a free user of Google Play Music.