Official XBMC Remote for Android
Nearly a year ago, topfs2 started working on a remote client for Android phones and was shortly joined by me, not even having my phone yet. The project grew rapidly and soon the_alien and mikkle joined the show. While the app was always freely available via Google Code, we’ve decided today that it’s time for a public beta release on Android Market. It’s still not final, but we’ve received much positive feedback from users, and after all a Market distribution is much more convenient for both us developers as well as the users.
There is still a lot to do, but the basics should work fairly well. Besides using the app as pure remote control with the look of the famous Xbox DVD Dongle, you’ll be able to browse your music, movie and TV shows library. Browse through your albums by genre or artist, select or queue an album without even turning on your television? No problem. Make incoming calls automagically pause the film you’re watching? Go to settings and check the option. You can find a complete list of features on the project page. Also check out the screenshots gallery.
You’ll need at least Android v1.5 (Cupcake) and XBMC v9.11 (Camelot) in order to run it correctly. Also, XBMC’s coming up Dharma release will be fully supported. If you have a suggestion or find a bug, please use our issue tracker and not the comments in Android Market. If you need discuss other stuff you’re not sure about, use our forum. We are looking forward to your comments and suggestions!
Great remote app for xbmc, defiantly the best remote for android and I’m glad to see you have teamed up.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I LOVE YOU GUYS, just the best…… :) :)
Awesome!
This is one of the most impressive apps for Android I have experienced. Works amazingly well with my HTC Desire. Great work guys.
Freezy and Team XBMC, thanks for all the ball-busting hard work and for keeping this a free app. I must say I’m looking forward to seeing 1.0 but enjoying the journey getting there.
What are your plans when we start to see mainstream Android tablets? Will this be scaled to fit or more features added?
Smooth, fast and good looking – wow!
Fantastic , I’ll test right away!
@KruyKaze
Brilliant! A very complete remote for xbmc. Thank you guys!
This app works great. I love it especially when I’m in another room and want to play a song. Also I didn’t realize it but after trying to open an onion video mobile clip it gave me an option to open with the remote and bam, there it was on my tv. I got to read about its features now.
Sweet, have been using the beta from the google code site. great that you added it to market now :)
Is there a place where we can read on the app? Mostly I am concerned by the permissions it requests: SMS, personal information.
This is great news for the Android… This can be a killer app :D
Keep up the good work…
Sorry to rain in this very nice parade but… doesn’t it ask for to much privileges just for a remote control app?
Is it really necessary to read SMS/MMS or read contacts information?
I guess it has to do with some features about showing in the TV the incoming call/sms info but, I don’t know it’s a bit to much to find a requirements list so big just to install…
Anyway, the rain just stopped. The App seams great and, as always, I’m very thank full for all the effort that sure went into making this real.
THX.
Too bad this does NOT support fanarts. Every time I use it I get so annoyed when I see the standard background pic that I immediately switch back to my non-cell remote. 800 music albums and more than 550 artists, each with full hd fanarts, all for nothing with the Android remote. Hopefully they will fix this soon. Because the app would actually be great…
Looks amazing!
But why don’t invest time to create a webinterface so that every browser in different mobile operating systems like iOS4, Android, MeeGo, Symbian, etc can use it!?!
The same is with all the newspaper websites… everyone programs new Apps for iOS4, Android … but no one uses the already existing feature to modify their existing webpage to run smoothly on every device.
Cheers,
David
Xbmc and xbmc remote app rules.
@jurrabi
The source is fully open and we promise nothing bad is done with the privileges. That being said, on android if you may use the feature you need to have the privileges, there is no way to ask for it post-install. By default it won’t use the contact information or sms information at all and its a toggle in settings, however we must declare the privilege since we might use it.
Both contact information, telephone calls and sms is used to display a notification on screen with the correct data associated with them.
System stuff is used to force wifi on if the user must have it to connect to XBMC.
SD-Card is used to store the coverart.
@jurrabi
See also http://code.google.com/p/android-xbmcremote/wiki/Permissions
I’ve been using this app on my HTC hero for a wee while now and I have to say it’s the best app I’ve used. I particularly like the way it shows text messages on screen, pauses and displays caller id. Nice way to show off to your mates
10/10.
Good work guys… anyone want to create a Maemo version though? :P
Great news, started following this project a long time ago and i must say it has turned into something ever greater. Too bad i have to wait till i get home to try it out, thanks for the hard work guys, specially Topfs2.
Sooooo….
What are the chances of an iPhone version?
great app! if you ever want to add some features. a streaming option would be fantastic. if off, the music is played on the tv. if on, the music is played on the phone. then i would not need subsonic anymore (http://www.subsonic.org/pages/apps.jsp)
Dont think half the features would work on an iPhone
App for the iPhone: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=53824
Very nice.
A nice feature would be to turn on wlan if not already enabled and same to turn it of if the app turned it on
Been using this remote for a couple of months and have seen it grow over time, much better UI then the iPhone one that I used to use.
Does it support multiple XBMC systems? i.e. I have one in the living room, on in the bed room and one in the garage, can I switch between each of the systems?
I’ve been using this app for some time now and I’ve been very happy with it. I’m glad that it’s on the market now, much easier to keep it updated!
Great work guys, keep it up! :D
I was also a little put off by the number of permissions required, but I appreciate your clear explanation of why they are needed and the fact that it is open source.
I may have to break my “no apps that read contact data” rule to give it a try.
Thanks.
@HitchHiker
Yes. See features list.
I’m using it for one month on my Android+CyanogenMod phone. It rocks ;-)
@freezy3K
– Thanks
I was so excited to see it that I ran home to download it and give it a try, WOW!!! Its great I don’t know if I will want to use my regular remote anymore.
Nice works guys. I really love this app already (running it on HTC Desire).
Cheers!!
Automatic transcoding and streaming to phone would be quite awesome.
@peasoup
Oh yeahhh, with a meamo/meego/symbian port, XBMC would be covered on all grounds!!
@HitchHiker
yes it does
Hi there.
Impressing, but what is available on Windows Mobile? Do you plan to have one remote working on different phne platforms (iPhone, WinMo, Android, Symbian etc), or rather plan to have a separate solution for each platform? What is best on WinMo?
is that possible a future development to iphone, ipod touch and ipad? like grus write.
thanks XBMC team!
And two days before I get my Evo. I love you guys!
Cool to know it’s on Market, been using the beta for a while. I’m now on Dharma nightly builds though and I don’t think all the buttons work right and I also get a combination of banners and posters in TV shows, yet they’re all set up the same. Hopefully niggles like this will be worked out to make it even better. Great app, though a bit of a show-off tool really as I have my harmony one configured for xbmc. I look forward to the day that it can stream the content to the phone though and it’d also be great if it could somehow launch xbmc if it was closed…
I use it and it’s very good app !! thank you
just i think, they have a little bug in sort list order (don’t work for me) with android 2.1
sorry for my bad english :(
Awesome, this is a great app. XBMC rocks!
Great app Team XBMC. I have been using this since I learned about it and its by far the best android app for XBMC. Really impressed with the SMS/Incoming call status its very helpful also the wake on lan support and just all around integration is really awesome thanks for the hard work.
This looks very promising! I love the fact that there is more and more unified development going on for supplemental XBMC tools. I am not an android guy but i may have to get an android based device (maybe a portable media player) to take advantage of this and just forget about RF receivers and remote controls…However as a side note to the developers, Have you ever considered developing or porting the software to the QT framework? I know people have been boobing for support for this phone platform or that (It would drive me crazy) and i have heard good things about QT because you can develop the software once and it will work across a wide variety of mobile platforms (Symbian, Android (unofficial), Windows Mobile, and iphone (unofficial), and more…just a thought. Anyways, great work!
Cheers,
Slice
Very good app! I stopped using remotes completely. And even my gf uses it on her own phone, and that is always a good sign :)
Can some one help me set mine up. Something is not working and I cant figure out why…..
Wow that looks great!
Makes me want to go and buy a new phone just to use it!!
Is there anything like this out for blackberry?
Awesome!
As I’ve seen, it rocks. Now I WANT an ANDROID PHONE!!!!!! Next in Christmas list.
aLeX
Very good app!!!!!!!!!!!!!