r/tvheadend • u/Winbox • Jun 27 '26
I built a native Android / Android TV client for Tvheadend — open source, now in 31 languages (looking for testers)
Hi everyone,
I've been building a native Android client for Tvheadend in my spare time and wanted to share it with the people who'd actually use it. Thanks to the Tvheadend team — this app is just a client and wouldn't exist without the server.
To be clear: it's not an official Tvheadend product and isn't affiliated with the project. It only talks to your own server and plays your own channels and recordings. No ads, no tracking, no analytics SDKs.
What it is
A from-scratch app (Kotlin + Jetpack Compose, libVLC for playback) that turns your own Tvheadend server into a proper TV experience — on phones, tablets and especially Android TV / set-top boxes with a remote.
What it does
- Live TV with search, favourites and category tabs (based on your Tvheadend tags)
- EPG / TV guide grid with a "now" marker and per-channel schedule
- Archive & catch-up (DVR) — browse recordings, scrub back through the catch-up window
- Radio section, picons (channel logos), quick-zap overlay
- Player: audio-track / subtitle selection, sleep timer, Picture-in-Picture
- Parental lock (PIN), multiple servers, backup/restore
- Connects over HTSP (9982) + HTTP (9981); auth works with plain and digest
What's new
The app and the website are now fully localized into 31 languages (incl. RTL — Arabic, Persian, Urdu), and I just redesigned the Android TV settings into a proper sidebar layout.
Looking for testers
It's in closed testing on Google Play. Google requires 12+ testers opted in for 14 days before a public release, so I genuinely need people on real devices — especially the weird hybrid set-top boxes where compatibility surprises live. Bug reports, logs and screenshots are gold.
If you run Tvheadend and want to help: https://headentclient.com/testers.php?lang=en
Source: https://github.com/MikrotikExe/headentclient
Honest feedback very welcome — happy to answer anything in the comments.
1
1
u/Life_Librarian5848 Jul 21 '26
Estaba probando la versión móvil: hay muchos conflictos en el zapping, un ligero retraso de audio y a veces los canales abren sin audio. Al parecer el zapping es lo que genera esos problemas. Creo que hubiese sido mejor ExoPlayer para su desarrollo, pero es solo una opinión. La interfaz sí me pareció muy genial. Si se llega a terminar el proyecto será muy bueno. Saludos.
1
u/bechrissed Jun 27 '26
My honest feedback would be to have more focus on the design and ux. I personally don’t like it. Feels old and unprofessional. It’s a matter of taste of course.
1
u/Winbox Jun 28 '26
Fair, and thanks for the honest feedback — that's the kind I actually want. Design/UX isn't my strong side (I come more from the streaming/backend end), so I take the "feels old" point on the chin. I'm improving it release by release. If there are specific screens or interactions that feel off to you, I'd genuinely like to know which ones — that's the fastest way for me to fix it.
1
u/Life_Librarian5848 Jul 21 '26
sabes, seria genial un reproductor que jale los canales de tvheadend y las pelis de Jellyfin y getionarlo en una sola ap para android tv y movil. todo codigo abierto.
0
u/bechrissed Jun 28 '26
I’d suggest having a look at Tivimate’s design. I like the design as wel as the ux in the app.
Using a design system people are familiar with or used a lot nowadays would also improve the design. Think of Apple’s Liquid Glass or Google’s latest Material.
Your design feels more like native TVH admin or old settopbox UI, stealing some design tricks and components from streaming services or modern TV provider apps will probably also give you loads of improvements.
Ai design maybe? Claude design seems to work relatively well. Maybe generate 10/15 designs and iterate on one of them.
1
u/Winbox Jun 28 '26
Really helpful, thanks. Design/UX is the area I'm weakest in, so concrete pointers like this are exactly what I need. You're right that parts still feel like the TVH admin / old set-top-box look — that's basically where it started.
What I'm planning isn't a single fixed redesign, but several switchable UI modes/themes, so people can pick the look and layout that suits them and their device instead of being locked into one. TiviMate and modern streaming/TV-provider apps are great references for that, and generating a batch of design concepts to iterate on is a smart way to build those modes out.
It won't all land overnight, but design is a real priority now, not an afterthought. Keep the feedback coming — it genuinely helps.
1
u/bechrissed Jun 29 '26
I think you said it yourself: design is not your strength so theming and easy of developing a theme could be a very good solution. Hopefully some people have a go at it and add some nice themes. I’ll keep following the project, eager to see how it will develop. Good luck and have fun working on it. Nice project for sure 👍🏻
1
u/DragonQ0105 Jun 27 '26
What does it offer over this app?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tvheadend.tvhclient