Hotfix Update

• This release addresses a major issue (#41) concerning synchronization between clients for version 0.10.0, hence, the video position not being declared at all to the server which causes synch issues between Android devices, as well as the PC Client.
• Fixed an issue regarding the 'pause at 00:00' bug, where the client doesn't know the pausing position.

Overview :

This release brings a bunch of important fixes to a myriad of bugs, and further stabilizes the beta release as we approach a stable release. For those of you who obtained the Google Play store version (which is currently unavailable), this version cannot update it (different signature) and therefore will require you to uninstall it, and install the new one. Those who have version 0.9.0 can safely update it without having to uninstall anything.

And yes, Google is at it again banning my Google Play account for the second time for no apparent violation (Do they hate open-sourcers? ._.). Without further ado, the following section contains a list of made changes.

Changes and New Features :

• The Network infrastructure backbone is completely rewritten: Due to the several bugs that have been happening due to network instability, Syncplay bugged very badly every time, for example, you would even see a dozen versions of yourself inside the room, Naruto's Kage Bunshin of sorts, this issue is described here #21 . The old network code also caused the connection to be lost very easily even when the slightest timeout happens. Now all network-related bugs are gone, the connectivity is much more stable, and the parallel room sessions bug is permanently gone.
• URL Support #37 #22: Yes, it is finally here ! You can now load a file from the network (assuming it is a direct link and not just a YouTube video, the integrated player doesn't support YouTube videos, you should feed it direct links, you can test the playback using this one). After adding a URL, you should wait a few seconds until Syncplay fully reads the content of the URL (but not fully downloads it). Once that's done, your client will declare to other room members that you loaded a URL.
• Shared Playlist functionality is complete now! #19: The remaining features of the playlist are now fully ported. You can now shuffle the playlist or what's left of it, you can also save and load txt files without any storage permission. These txt files are interoperable with PC's Syncplay and therefore you can easily save a playlist on Android and load it on PC. You can now set media directories inside the room as well. Last but not least, duplicates are now not allowed, just like PC Syncplay.
• Tons of bug fixes and adjustments, most notably:
  • [x] Huge performance boost especially when it comes to shared playlists or opening a room.
  • [x] Shared Playlist now displays the correct play status, you won't see multiple files being played at once.
  • [x] the Shared Playlist's list doesn't jump to the top (scrolling to top instantly) every time an action is taken within it.
  • [x] Main screen now is rotateable. (#39)
  • [x] The Day/Night button now looks fancier.
  • [x] Popup menus now have smaller text size, populating less space on screen.
  • [x] Prevented Main screen from launching twice on some devices.
  • [x] You will prompted to confirm your choice upon clearing media directories, this is to prevent any misclicks.

Last word

The best way you can contribute to this app is by translating it or testing it as intensively as you can and telling me about any issues. Enjoy :)

Remark:

Uninstall v0.8.0 or any older version or you'll have duplicate separate apps. The package name was changed from 'com.chromaticnoob.syncplay' to 'com.reddnek.syncplay' and therefore requires you to delete the old app and install this new one. As mentioned in #35, this is the second time the package name is changed, but should be the last one as well. Apologies.

This update comes with some essential bug fixes and a few enhancements here and there. Please note that the app is still in BETA release, feedback would be much appreciated.

New Features :

• Added two new translations: Chinese Language (Thanks to Zhaodaidai) & French Language (This one needs a thorough revision). If you want to contribute with more translations, please refer to #30
• Dark (Night) Mode is now available. You can easily switch between Day & Night modes in the main screen, or you can find the setting in the 'settings' tab from the main screen.
• Solo (Offline) Mode: This turns Syncplay Android into a simple video player to benefit from the video player features. To enter Solo Mode: Click on the pink button located on the upper left corner of the main screen.

Bug Fixes :

• Fixed a very annoying issue where messages weren't animated and therefore users wouldn't notice any incoming chat messages (#18 + #34)
• Fixed a bug that prevented message history to be populated with messages (#32) + enhanced its performance.
• Sub-folders are no longer added to Shared Playlists when adding a folder.
• Fixed an issue where changing the subtitle size wasn't responding to in-room modification.
• Fixed a little UX inconvenience where clicking on the button to send messages didn't automatically hide the UI.
• Fixed an issue where custom servers' password wasn't remembered.
• Fixed an issue where playlists updates from a 'no user at all' was being shown.
• Fixed a bug where the message input box was being trimmed from below on certain occasions and devices.
• Fixed a little icon issue for subtitle button where it would be changed permanently to the no-subtitle icon even if there are subtitle tracks.

User-Interface (UI) Adjustments :

• Added an artwork background to the room.
• Changed default fonts to make sure they properly support the languages that are bundled with the app.
• Restored the visibility of the status bar (notification bar/upper bar) when outside the room.
• Made the message typing box disappear after clicking on screen only if it contains no text.
• In the media directory management screen, the path of the item is now shown as a Snackbar instead of a Toast.
• Made OSD (On-screen display info which are situated in the middle) appear for a longer duration for better readability.
• Rounded the ping digits to whole numbers as it can often be unnecessarily long.
• Added little tooltips upon long-pressing buttons in order to identify its function.
• Changed default opacity of the messages' background by making it more opaque.

There's still a lot left to do. Let me know if anything needs to be fixed, or any feature to add. Also you can support the project by providing translations in your own native language.

About URL support

I still haven't gotten around to code the URL support, I will make sure it will be included in the next version ;)

In case you encounter any issues installing the app:

• Make sure you have Android 5.0 Lollipop and higher.
• Make sure you have uninstalled the previous version. There is no point in updating the app, just a clean install would do.

In case you encounter issues playing a video:

• It's probably due to your device's capabilities. You are still welcome to open an issue thread here telling us the problem in detail.

Remark:

Uninstall v0.7.0 or any older version or you'll have duplicate separate apps. App's namespace was changed and therefore requires a clean re-installation.

This MAJOR update comes with an enormous performance boost, bug fixes, feature ports from official Syncplay and a few enhancements here and there. Please note that the app is still in BETA release, feedback would be much appreciated.

New Features :

• Shared Playlists (Ported from official Syncplay PC): Now users can share a single playlist (on PC and on Android), the playlist can be seen, updated or changed by anyone and it contains file names that will be searched in media folders and directories which are specified by each user. This feature is still in preliminary test phase. #11
• Custom Servers (Ported from official Syncplay PC): You can input custom server info (address, port, password) now. This feature has not been tested yet and might not work properly. #15
• New Setting: "File name sending / File size sending" as "Raw, Hashed or don't send at all" (ported from official Syncplay). This allows users to choose whether they wanna announce their file's properties (Size and Name) . Previously, using Syncplay Android with users who use both use Syncplay Desktop and enabled the hashing setting, would crash Syncplay Android as it didn't support parsing hashed filenames/sizes. This crash is automatically fixed with this feature.
• New Setting: Warning about file mismatches (ported from official Syncplay). Users can now be notified about any minor mismatches between files (Name mismatching, size mismatching, or duration mismatching).
• New Setting: "Pause if someone leaves" (Ported from official Syncplay).
• Printing timestamp when pausing (Ported from Official Syncplay 1.7.0 Beta 1)
• Redundant seeking messages such as (User jumped from 00:10 to 00:10) are no longer shown.

Bug Fixes :

• Fixed an issue where users couldn't sometimes change audio/subtitle tracks (Selection was seldom getting ignored).
• Fixed an issue where 'CONNECT' screen's height surpassed that of some small-screen devices, now it's scrollable unless the screen height suffices.
• Back button no longer "hides" the room, now it closes the connection with the server permanently.
• Fixed a bug where users could exist within a room with multiple parallel sessions. #16
• Fixed issue where keeping the app in the background for far too long would kill the connection. Now the app reconnects if the connection got dropped. #12
• Fixed an issue where getting disconnected repeatedly may cause "DISCONNECTED" popup to be spawned endless number of times.
• Fixed an issue where some events were rarely not getting dispatched (Such as, when someone leaves the room, or when someone adds a file).
• Fixed an issue where file information was not being sent again after successful reconnection.
• Fixed a bug where username and room name were not getting trimmed to match server regulations.
• Fixed an issue where video playback does not go back to 00:00 after loading a new video.
• Fixed missing Arabic texts.
• Smaller app size (13MBs > 7.6MBs).

User-Interface (UI) Adjustments :

• Replaced the obnoxiously-looking starter hint ("Click on icon to load video" hint) with a popup dialog that can be dismissed permanently.
• Replaced the main font with a multilingual font to match Latina and Arabic typesetting.
• Reduced Splash Screen duration from 700ms to 500ms and improved its transition.
• Rounded the corners of the following two areas: "Room Details" area card + "Messages" area card
• Fixed issue where there would still exist a small gray square left after collapsing Room Details (By unchecking "Show Details").
• Enhanced join button's appearance.
• Defaulted server to syncplay.pl:8997. And added advice on 'Disconnected' pop to change server in case there are issues.

There's still a lot left to do. Let me know if anything needs to be fixed, or any feature to add. Also you can support the project by providing translations in your own native language.

In case you encounter any issues installing the app:

• Make sure you have Android 5.0 Lollipop and higher.
• Make sure you have uninstalled the previous version. There is no point in updating the app, just a clean install would do.

In case you encounter issues playing a video:

• It's probably due to your device's capabilities. You are still welcome to open an issue thread here telling us the problem in detail.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/chromaticnoob/syncplay-android/compare/0.7.0...v0.8.0

This is another major update that addresses some other serious issues, and adds a lot to the plate.

Bug Fixes and Enhancements :

• Fixed an issue where track selections were being forgotten after bringing the app back to the foreground.
• Fixed an issue where some tracks appeared selected while they are not and vice versa (#7)
• Fixed a rare issue where some tracks did not appear at all in their audio/subtitle menus.
• Fixed an annoying bug where the user had to load the external subtitle file each time they bring the app back to the foreground (after minimizing it to the background).
• Prevented the user from joining a room while leaving the username or room-name fields empty (as it resulted in a failed connection anyway).
• Fixed an issue where the server list gets totally emptied on some occasions after going back to 'Connect' screen.
• Prevented the user from enabling TLSv1.3 functionality as it's not functioning properly. It is now grayed out.
• Fixed the odd app logo on certain devices and globalized its behavior across all Android systems and APIs.

New Features and Improvements :

• Added an entirely new section to the room : In-room Settings. They can be accessed via the overflow menu (Icon ⋮). #8 What makes this section so special is that whatever you change in the settings, they get applied instantly ! The in-room settings also contain new features such as color customizations, and also an option to hide message timestamps.
• Added multi-language support. Current available languages are : English and Arabic (will add French myself soon).
• Users can now choose to disable/enable whether the app should expand its limits beyond the camera's notch (Which only exist in Android versions equal or higher than Android Pie 9.0). The feature exists via the room's overflow menu (Icon ⋮).

Indeed, such a mesmerizing update ! But let's not forget that the app still suffers from some issues that will be fixed in the next version.

Please let me know if anything needs to be fixed, or any feature to add. Also you can support the project by providing translations in your own native language.

In case you encounter any issues installing the app:

• Make sure you have Android 5.0 Lollipop and higher.
• Make sure you have uninstalled the previous version. There is no point in updating the app, just a clean install would do.

In case you encounter issues playing a video:

• It's probably due to your device's capabilities. You are still welcome to open an issue thread here telling us the problem in detail.

Another major release that addresses a few more remaining serious issues:

Changelog;

• Filenames are now displayed properly instead of the "msf:6535" or "video:5360" nonsense. #5
• Subtitles are loaded properly and an error shows up if a non-subtitle file is loaded. #10
• Enabled FFmpeg extension that allows Syncplay to play more audio formats. #2 Formats that are now supported: FLAC, MP3, Opus, AAC, AC3, DTS, DTS-HD, TrueHD, Vorbis, ALAC, PCM u-law, PCM A-law, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, E-AC-3, MP2, MP1.

Code Changelog:

• Adjusted the architecture of the app and reorganized classes, cleaned some of the code, replaced some deprecated functions with up-to-date functions, merged ClientDelegate with RoomViewModel into one class named SyncplayProtocol which is the one unique ViewModel.
• Removed 'ffmpeg' folder as it served no purpose.
• Assembled all extended/convenience/static functions into one toolkit class called SyncplayUtils.
• Documented some parts of the codes. Will document more later.
• Slowly began the process of "separating of concerns" to make sure the app's code is readable and maintainable.

Known Issues:

• TLS still does not work and I haven't allocated time to fix it yet as it's not my prime priority. #6

This minor release addresses a critical issue concerning subtitle loading. So this little update is a HotFix to that.

Changelog:

• Fixed issue where user cannot load any external subtitle file. #4

If you face an issue updating the app, uninstall the old version and install the new one.

This is a major release dealing with some of the annoying issues with the past version. Since Syncplay-android is still in beta release, it will be in constant development and progress.

Changelog :

• Users are now informed (through a popup dialog) when connection is lost.
• After connection drops, re-connection attempts are executed repeatedly until a valid connection with the server is established.
• Fixed issue where the screen's landscape orientation was locked on one direction despite activating auto-rotate sensor.
• Prevented the co-existence of multiple rooms in the background. Only one room instance can exist at the same time.
• BACK Button now finishes the instance of the room instead of just sending it to the back-stack.
• Fixed the distorted position of "Message History" dialog.
• Adjusted the opacity of "Insert a new video" starting hint so it doesn't hide the background texts.
• Added support for Tiramisu (Android 13) preview API.

In the next version, I will make sure to adjust the following things:

• File names now do not make sense at all thanks to Android 12's useless security policies, I will find a way to bypass that.
• TLSv1.3 connection should be activated by standard and functioning seamlessly, however, it doesn't work at all for the moment.
• Not all audio formats are supported. FFmpeg will be enabled in the update to make sure more audio track formats are supported. #2

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where some systems won't open up file browsers upon clicking the video adding icon. (Most notably those with Android 12) #1
• Fixed an issue where the user cannot add subtitles.

Soon-to-be-fixed known bugs:

• Inability to reconnect once the connection drops.
• Some texts appear blank.
• Connection is not encapsulated in a secure layer, even turning on TLS doesn't change anything.
• The player does not support many formats, such as 12-Bit video, OPUS audio tracks, FLAC audio tracks, highly-compressed high-level HEVC video with a color matrix other than 444...etc (This will be done via activating the FFmpeg ExoPlayer extension).
• Subtitles cannot be simultaneous, that is, only 1 subtitle is shown at a time (an ExoPlayer issue, hope they fix it).
• Get rid of all the deprecated functions especially those of ExoPlayer.
• Clicking the BACK button doesn't exit the room but just sends it to the backstack.

Features to be added:

• The "readiness" should somehow have an effect on the playability of the video.
• Shared playlists and auto-add video on video finish.
• Add commands such as /help
• Easily send messages using the soft keyboard's OK button rather than clicking the send button.
• Notify the user that they're disconnected if connection drops.
• Quickly adjust UI opacity inside the room without having to quit it.
• Show audio tracks' channel identifiers (For example Mono 1.0, Stereo 2.0, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1... etc).
• The ability to change the username inside the room.
• Show errors as to why the video won't play in case it doesn't.

Let me know about any bugs to fix or features to add.

First GitHub-available release apk.