v0.14.2 is now available on all platforms! This release focused mainly on smaller feature additions and stability, along with preparation for what's coming next v0.15.0, the open beta!
Before the release notes, a heads up for Android users. On Google Play, the internal test lets us share the app for free, but only with 100 testers. Once those places are taken (there are about 30 to 40 left), the Android beta will no longer be free. If you have friends or family who might like the app, point them to lagu.fm. Registrations for the closed beta stay open until 24 hours before the v0.15.0 release, and anyone signed up for Android through the closed beta list gets first access. After the places are gone, the Android beta stays open through a public link, but as open testing on Google Play, which follows Lagu's store price rather than being free. Anyone who buys the app in open testing keeps it when Lagu is fully released, and it helps support Lagu's development. This only applies to Android, every other platform stays free during the open beta. Inactive testers will be removed from the internal test before the open beta launches.
As always, thank you to everyone who has sent feedback and been actively testing Lagu. It means a lot, and the app has grown immensely thanks to your reports and support. A brief rundown before the full release notes:
- Seeking while casting to a network speaker (DLNA), and real speaker volume on Android
- Android volume keys control your computer over Lagu Remote
- Volume drags from iPhone and iPad no longer drop the Lagu Remote connection
- Apple Watch playback improvements
- Desktop can choose where downloads are saved, and which audio output to use
- iPhone and iPad: Compact rows, and long titles that scroll
There's more in the full release notes below. As always, if you have questions or run into issues, open a discussion here on the forum or reach out through the contact form on the website!
Full Release Notes:
What's new in 0.14.2
A short release before the open beta. 0.14.1 listed three things still missing: volume for a network speaker on Android, seeking while casting, and the Android volume keys over Lagu Remote. All three are here, along with a head start for Apple Watch and a handful of requests you sent in.
Network speakers (desktop and Android phone)
- Seek while casting. Drag the playhead or press Previous while a network speaker is playing and the speaker lands where you asked. For a converted stream Lagu starts the conversion again from that point. If a speaker will not seek a file itself, Lagu hands it a lossless conversion that starts at the right spot.
- Real speaker volume on Android. The volume keys and the Now Playing slider now set the speaker's own level. Desktop already did this.
Lagu Remote
- Android volume keys control the computer. While your phone controls a computer, each press moves the computer's volume 5 %, a small pill shows the new level, and the slider in Now Playing is back. Holding a key ramps smoothly. The keys also work from Up Next, Play on and the visualizer switcher. An Android TV still says volume is set on the TV or receiver, because it is.
iPhone and iPad
- Long titles scroll. The title of the playing track scrolls across its row in albums, playlists, downloads and Up Next, and the title and artist lines scroll on the full Now Playing screen. It holds for a moment, scrolls once, rests, and repeats. It stops when you pause or scroll the list, and Reduce Motion turns it off.
- Row density. Settings, Appearance, Row density: Comfortable, as before, or Compact, for shorter rows and more songs on screen.
Apple Watch
- Your streaming quality cap works on the watch. With a cap set, the watch was quietly playing the original file, after downloading all of it first. It now streams at the quality you picked. If a capped stream truly cannot start, the watch says so and offers the original instead of switching silently.
- Download quality. Original, 320, 256, 192 or 128 kbps, like the phone. It applies to new downloads.
- Now Playing from anywhere. Every screen has a Now Playing button at the top, so you no longer have to back all the way out to pause.
- Long press a song for Play Next and Play Last, and an album or playlist for Download as well.
- Search in sections: Artists, Albums, Playlists and Songs. An artist opens their albums.
- Cover art on the system Now Playing card retries after a slow start instead of staying blank.
Desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux)
- Choose where downloads live. Settings, Downloads, Location. Move your downloads to the new folder or start fresh there. Lagu keeps them in a "Lagu Downloads" folder inside the one you pick. If that drive is missing when Lagu starts, it falls back to the default folder and tells you.
- Choose the audio output. Settings, Playback, Output lists every device on your computer. Lagu remembers your choice and goes back to it when the device is plugged in again.
- Linux: media keys and the desktop media widget, handled by Lagu itself. Keyboard media keys work with Lagu in the background, and your desktop's media controls, such as KDE's media widget, show the title, artist and art, and can seek and set the volume.
- Linux: a firewall hint for Lagu Remote. If a phone cannot pair, Settings, Lagu Remote shows the port Lagu is listening on and the commands to open it.
- Play and pause sit exactly in the middle of the controls under the seek bar.
Android Auto
- Home as shelves. Recently Played, Recently Added and Newly Released as grids of covers, then Stations. The album shelves draw from every library you have switched on, the same as the phone's Home.
- The Queue opens on the playing track, with the previous track above it and the next one below.
Fixed
Desktop and Android
- Old conversions stayed on your Plex server after a seek or a skip. Lagu asked the server to stop a conversion it no longer needed, but the request never matched, so each one lingered, showing as an extra stream in Plex and Tautulli, until the server gave up on it minutes later. They now stop straight away. A seek or a change of output could also leave a second, frozen entry behind in Plex and Tautulli; Lagu now closes it. On desktop, one click on the seek bar also no longer restarts a network speaker twice.
Desktop
- Going back to This Computer from a network speaker could spin forever until you played the song again. Seeking while paused on a converted stream left the same spinner.
- A speaker that would not seek a lossless file stopped seeking for the rest of the session. Lagu now works around it every time.
- Previous on a network speaker playing a converted stream now starts the track again instead of snapping back.
- "Move my downloads there" closed Lagu without reopening it, and the reopened app showed no downloads.
- The Output list overflowed its card and pushed the settings page sideways.
iPhone and iPad
- Dragging the volume slider while controlling a computer dropped the connection for a moment. Every step of the drag went over the network. It now sends a smooth stream the computer can keep up with. The volume buttons were never affected.
Android phone
- Casting to a network speaker stopped a few minutes after the screen locked. Lagu now keeps casting with the screen off and shows a small "Streaming to" notification while it does.
- Controlling a computer hid the volume slider and said volume was set on the TV. The fix is on the computer's side, so update Lagu there too.
- Other apps on your phone could read your Plex sign in through Lagu's media controls. Only the system's controls, your car, your watch, headphones and the Assistant can reach them now. Your Plex sign in, your paired computers and your downloads are also left out of Google backups and phone to phone transfers.
- A fresh install could settle on the wrong library as its main one when a server was slow to answer. That library then supplied Android Auto's stations and shelves.
- Switching to Original quality in the middle of a cast, then seeking, started the song again from 0:00.
- The volume keys looked dead for a moment right after picking a speaker.
- Dragging the playhead back on a converted stream could put the clock past the end of the song. Plex converts to a variable-bitrate MP3, and the player was timing every seek from that stream's first frame. The clock now follows the audio.
Android Auto
- Home kept saying it could not reach your server for a minute or more after the connection came back.
Known limits
Google Assistant and Gemini can start Lagu by voice in the car but not yet on the phone itself; that is planned for 0.15.0. On some speakers the very first seek right after you start casting plays from a lossless conversion rather than the original file itself. Playing the original there is planned for a later update. Android Auto still wants more time in real cars, so if something is off in yours please let me know.
If you've made it this far, thank you, and sorry for the giant information dump! Here's a quick preview of what's coming in v0.15.0:
- Desktop reskin and light mode
- New visualizers (one of them is called Tide)
- AutoEQ headphone profiles
- And much more
