Nine Lives - Android
An Android audiobook player for people who own their libraries. Connects to your Audiobookshelf server, downloads books for offline listening, and wraps it all in a dark cosmic interface that was never meant to have a light mode. Background playback, Android Auto, a sleep timer that knows when you are still awake, and listening analytics deep enough to qualify as surveillance of yourself.
What Makes Nine Lives Audio Different
- Background Playback — Media notifications, lock screen controls, and Android Auto support. Your audiobook keeps playing no matter what you are doing with your phone.
- True Offline Support — Download entire audiobooks over Wi-Fi. Listening progress queues locally and syncs automatically when your server is reachable again.
- Smart Sleep Timer — Set a countdown, and the timer watches for motion before pausing. If you are still moving, it waits. Shake your phone to reset. Auto-rewinds when it finally stops so you do not lose your place.
- 9-Band Equalizer — Fine-tune narration with nine frequency bands, built-in presets, and up to 10 dB of volume boost. No external audio apps needed.
- Nightwatch Dossier — Deep listening analytics tracking hours by time period, per-book breakdowns, narrator and genre analysis, and temporal patterns down to your peak listening hour. Shareable summary cards included.
- The Archive Beneath — A cosmic vault dark theme with gold and purple accents. This is not a setting you toggle. The darkness is the design.
- Android Auto — Browse your library, search, and control playback from your car's display. Chapter navigation and cover art included.
- No Tracking, No Ads — Credentials encrypted with AES-256-GCM. No analytics collected. No data leaves your device except to sync with your own server.
Screenshots
Features
Nine Lives Audio Home
Your 9 most recently played audiobooks displayed as a vault wall grid with cover art and fluorescent progress glow. Each tile shows how far along you are at a glance. Life Index badges — LIFE I through LIFE IX — appear based on your total listening hours. Corner sigils mark downloaded books in gold and bookmarked books in purple. One tap to resume.
The Archive
Your full collection with 11 sorting options, stone tab filtering by status (All, In Progress, Completed, Downloaded), and grouping by Series, Author, or Genre. Search across title, author, narrator, and series simultaneously. The Archive surfaces atmospheric commentary as you browse — over 20 variations that shift with your collection's mood.
Player
Chapter navigation with dual progress rings showing both chapter and book completion. Playback speed from 0.5x to 3.0x. Volume boost from 0 to 10 dB. A 9-band equalizer with built-in presets. The mini player persists as a bar at the bottom of every screen so playback controls are always one tap away. Background playback continues through media notifications and lock screen controls.
Sleep Timer
Configurable countdown with a 60-second motion-sensing grace window. If the accelerometer detects you are still moving when the timer hits zero, it waits. Shake your phone to reset the timer entirely. When it does pause, auto-rewind rolls back up to 60 seconds so you pick up right where you drifted off.
Downloads & Offline
Queue-based downloads with 2 concurrent transfers. Pause, resume, or cancel individual downloads at any time. Failed transfers retry automatically with exponential backoff. Once downloaded, audiobooks play entirely from local storage. No server connection needed.
Sync
Bidirectional sync with your Audiobookshelf server. When you are online, progress updates flow both ways. When you are offline, changes queue locally and flush automatically on reconnection with race-safe conflict handling. Your listening position stays consistent across every device connected to your server.
Nightwatch Dossier
Listening analytics across 6 time periods with overview stats, per-book breakdowns, and analysis by narrator, author, and genre. Temporal patterns show your hourly listening distribution, peak hour, and peak day. Generate a shareable summary card to show people exactly how much time you have spent in other worlds. All data stays on your device.
Android Auto
Full media browsing tree in your car's display. Search your library, control playback, skip chapters, and seek — all from the steering wheel or touchscreen. Cover art displays alongside your current book. No phone interaction required while driving.
Playback History
A timestamped log of everything you have listened to, pulled directly from your Audiobookshelf server's session records. Browse recent sessions to recover your position after an accidental scrub or an app restart. The history surfaces as a bottom sheet in the player — one swipe to see where you were, one tap to jump back.
Quick Start
- Install Nine Lives Audio from Google Play.
- Open the app and tap Settings.
- Enter your Audiobookshelf server URL, username, and password.
- Tap Test Connection — your library syncs automatically.
- Browse your collection, pick a book, and start listening.
Self-Signed Certificates
If your Audiobookshelf server uses a self-signed SSL certificate, enable the "Trust Self-Signed Certificates" option in Settings before testing your connection. This is common for home lab setups running behind reverse proxies.
Requirements
- OS: Android 11 or later
- Server: Audiobookshelf instance (any version supporting API v1)
- Storage: ~30 MB for the app, plus space for downloaded audiobooks
- Optional: Android Auto compatible head unit for in-car playback
FAQ
Does this work with other audiobook servers?
No. Nine Lives Audio is built specifically for Audiobookshelf and uses its REST API. It will not work with Plex, Jellyfin, or other media servers.
Will my progress sync with the Windows desktop app?
Yes. Both apps sync through your Audiobookshelf server. Pick up on your phone where you left off on your PC, or the other way around.
Why is there no light mode?
By design. Nine Lives Audio uses a cosmic vault aesthetic called The Archive Beneath. The dark theme is not a preference — it is part of the experience. Your eyes will thank you during late-night listening.
Does the sleep timer actually detect motion?
Yes. When the countdown reaches zero, the app checks the accelerometer for 60 seconds. If it senses movement, it assumes you are still awake and keeps playing. Shake your phone to manually reset the timer at any point.
Is my data private?
Completely. No analytics, no tracking, no ads. Server credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM on your device. The only network traffic is between your phone and your own Audiobookshelf server.
Built on Open Source
Nine Lives Audio is a third-party client for Audiobookshelf, a free and open-source self-hosted audiobook and podcast server created by advplyr and its contributors. Nine Lives Audio is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Audiobookshelf project.
Audiobookshelf is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. Nine Lives Audio uses the Audiobookshelf REST API to connect to user-operated servers and does not distribute or modify Audiobookshelf source code.
© advplyr and contributors — github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf