Nine Lives - Android
An Android audiobook player for people who own their libraries — the books already on your phone and the ones on your own server. Point it at a folder on your device and it builds a library with no account, no cloud, and nothing uploaded. Or connect your self-hosted Audiobookshelf server to carry your whole collection across devices. Background playback, Android Auto, a sleep timer that knows when you are still awake, four themes, and listening analytics deep enough to qualify as surveillance of yourself.
What Makes Nine Lives Audio Different
- Local Library, No Server — Point Nine Lives at any folder of audio on your device and it builds a browsable library, reading cover art, embedded chapters, and metadata. No account, no subscription, no cloud. Everything stays on your device.
- Or Bring Your Own Server — Connect a self-hosted Audiobookshelf server and your whole collection follows you across devices, with progress that syncs both ways. Audiobookshelf is optional — Nine Lives works fully with local files alone.
- The Archive Shelf — Remove a folder and Nine Lives keeps the cover and your listening history on an Archive shelf, so a book you finished never just vanishes. Re-add the folder and it comes right back, or delete it for good whenever you want.
- Background Playback — Media notifications, lock screen controls, and Android Auto support. Your audiobook keeps playing no matter what you are doing with your phone.
- 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.
- 5-Band Equalizer — Fine-tune narration with five frequency bands, built-in presets, and up to 10 dB of volume boost for quiet recordings. 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.
- Four Themes — The default is The Archive Beneath, a cosmic vault of deep indigo and gold filament. There is also a true-black AMOLED theme, a warm Candlelight sepia, and — reluctantly — a genuine light mode for daylight listening.
- 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. Local libraries never leave your device, and in server mode nothing leaves except to sync with your own server.
Screenshots
Features
Local Library
Pick any folder of audio on your device and Nine Lives turns it into a browsable library, reading cover art, embedded chapters, and metadata straight from your files. No account, no server, no login — nothing is uploaded and nothing leaves your phone. This is the whole app for people who just want to play the books they already have.
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 sorting, 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.
The Archive Shelf
Remove a local folder and its books do not simply disappear. Nine Lives keeps the cover art and your listening history on the Archive shelf, so a book you finished is still there to look back on. Re-add the folder and it returns exactly where it was, or clear it from the shelf for good whenever you decide you are done with it.
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 5-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 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, optional auto-rewind rolls back so you pick up right where you drifted off.
Downloads & Offline (Server Mode)
Connected to an Audiobookshelf server, download books over Wi-Fi with a sequential queue you can pause and resume. Failed transfers retry automatically. Once downloaded, audiobooks play entirely from local storage, and Nine Lives auto-switches to downloaded-only when the server is unreachable. Local-library books are, of course, already offline.
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. Local libraries save your position on-device with no server involved.
Nightwatch Dossier
Listening analytics across multiple time periods with overview stats, session counts, per-book breakdowns, and analysis by top narrators and authors. 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.
Bookmarks
Mark any position in a book with a custom title, so the exact line that stopped you is one tap away later. Bookmarked books carry a purple corner sigil on the home grid.
Themes
Four looks that all keep the gold-filament identity. The Archive Beneath is the default: a cosmic vault of deep indigo and gold. AMOLED drops to true black (#000000) for OLED battery savings. Candlelight is a warm sepia variant. And Bright is a genuine light theme with real daylight contrast — yes, there is finally a light mode.
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. In server mode it pulls directly from your Audiobookshelf server's session records, so you can 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
Local files — no server
- Install Nine Lives Audio from Google Play.
- Open the app and choose Add a folder.
- Pick any folder of audiobooks on your device.
- Nine Lives scans it into a library — pick a book and start listening.
Audiobookshelf server
- Tap Settings and open the server section.
- 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 (API 30)
- Server: Optional — an Audiobookshelf instance for cross-device sync and server downloads. Not required for local playback.
- Storage: ~30 MB for the app, plus space for your audiobooks and any server downloads
- Optional: Android Auto compatible head unit for in-car playback
FAQ
Do I need an Audiobookshelf server?
No. Nine Lives works fully with local files — point it at a folder on your device and you have a complete audiobook player with no account, server, or cloud. A self-hosted Audiobookshelf server is optional, and adds cross-device sync and server-side downloads.
Does this work with other audiobook servers?
For server sync, no — Nine Lives connects to Audiobookshelf specifically and uses its REST API. It will not sync with Plex, Jellyfin, or other media servers. It will, however, play any audiobook files you have locally, regardless of where they came from.
Will my progress sync with the Windows desktop app?
Yes, in server mode. Both apps sync through your Audiobookshelf server, so you can pick up on your phone where you left off on your PC, or the other way around. Local-only libraries keep their progress on-device.
Is there a light mode now?
Yes — reluctantly. Nine Lives ships four themes: The Archive Beneath (the default cosmic-vault dark palette of deep indigo and gold), a true-black AMOLED theme for OLED screens, a warm Candlelight sepia, and a genuine Bright light theme with proper daylight contrast. The gold-filament identity carries through all four.
Does the sleep timer actually detect motion?
Yes. When the countdown reaches zero, the app checks the accelerometer for a grace window. 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. Local libraries never leave your device. In server mode, the only network traffic is between your phone and your own Audiobookshelf server — Static Hum Studio runs no servers of its own. Server credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, and crash reports and feedback are opt-in and go through your own email client.
Built on Open Source
Nine Lives Audio works entirely on its own with local files. When you connect it to a server, it acts as 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