Fast, ad-free podcasting crafted for Android.
Explore shows through semantic topic search, enjoy intelligent discovery tuned to your taste,
and listen without paywalls, subscriptions, or ads.
About · The soul of boxlore · What we track · Features · Release notes · Screenshots · Install
boxlore is crafted to make podcast listening better. Built for listeners who care about quality software, it combines thoughtful audio and video controls with intelligent discovery—completely free of ads, subscriptions, and paywalls.
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🎨 BeautifulFluid Material 3 interface with dynamic theming, video playback, chapters, and clean controls. |
🧠 SmartNatural-language semantic search by topic, paired with hybrid vector recommendations. |
🔒 YoursDeep customization, full library ownership, and offline downloads. Zero ads, zero subscriptions, and no paywalls. |
| 📜 The soul of boxlore | 🔒 What we track and why |
|---|---|
| Why this app is free, ad-free, and crafted with care. | How hybrid discovery works & full data transparency. |
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Find podcasts | Search by show name, even with a misspelling, or describe a topic to find podcasts and individual episodes about it. |
| Recommendations | Hybrid discovery: Server-side semantic vector search using your recent listening seeds, with on-device tuning for your playback habits. |
| Automatic queue | When the list of episodes waiting to play runs low, Smart Queue can add more from the current show, unfinished listening, subscriptions, and recommendations. |
| Audio and video player | Play audio and video episodes with speed controls, a sleep timer, chapters, transcripts, intro skipping, and a queue you can reorder. |
| Downloads and library | Keep subscriptions, new episodes, downloads, likes, and listening history together. Smart Downloads can prepare episodes for offline listening. |
| Alerts and widgets | Choose which shows can send new-episode alerts. Home-screen widgets show playback controls, subscriptions, or new episodes. |
| TV and car playback | Send playback to supported TVs and speakers with Google Cast, or listen through Android Auto. |
| More ways to discover | Browse short question cards that lead to related episodes, or play an optional daily news briefing with sources and chapters. |
| Import and backup | Import a subscription file (OPML) from another podcast app, then export your subscriptions or a full library backup whenever needed. |
| No app ads | boxlore has no banner ads and does not charge to unlock features. Podcasts may still contain ads placed by their publishers. |
⚡ Improvements:
- Lore colors now blend as you swipe between cards.
- Lore cards have more reading room, larger playback controls, and clearer swipe feedback.
- The Lore queue prompt explains how to start a new queue or add episodes to your current one.
- Imported RSS shows now refresh and support automatic and Smart Downloads. Existing imports upgrade while keeping your saved state.
- Enable release notifications for public RSS feeds after confirmation. Keep notifications off for private or premium feeds because the shared checker publishes feed URLs in public backups.
- Choose from sixteen new complete themes, with simple light/dark previews and clearer wallpaper and custom-color controls.
- Automatic download settings are easier to read, with grouped controls and a separate help guide.
- Backup background checks now clearly explain how they help when show notifications are off or do not arrive.
- Navigation highlights match your chosen accent, and the miniplayer stays above the navbar when Android navigation buttons are enabled.
- When automatic downloads depend on opening boxlore, a notice explains this and offers to turn on show notifications.
🚨 Critical:
- Automatic downloads now recover new episodes when an episode alert is missing, resume after interruptions, and work with notifications turned off. Manually saved episodes stay protected.
- The floating player shrinks into a compact artwork control as you scroll, with playback progress kept visible and Lore moving into the navigation bar.
- Enjoy refined miniplayer controls and smoother transitions into the full player. Optional seek buttons are available in Appearance settings.
- Home loads more consistently, with smoother loading placeholders and less content blinking during refreshes.
- Background episode checks are now optional in Auto-Download Settings. They start off, explain their battery and data costs, offer network and charging restrictions, and pause when the battery is low.
- Auto-downloads still use new-episode pushes and normal refreshes while boxlore is open. Routine feed checks now share a six-hour cooldown and refresh large libraries in smaller batches.
- Added a dedicated Support boxlore experience in Settings with interactive tactical artifacts and lore inspection.
- Floating tab selectors and Play All follow the player's compact position.
- Lore colours follow the active artwork more reliably, and long Settings titles wrap across two lines.
- New Episodes now plays the remaining list in order and resumes unfinished episodes at the right position.
 Home Continue listening and see suggestions |
 Search Find a name or explore a topic |
 Player Controls, chapters, transcripts, and queue |
 Recommendations Suggestions based on what you listen to |
 Library Subscriptions, downloads, likes, and history |
 Daily briefing Optional news audio with sources |
- Google Play is the recommended install.
- GitHub Releases provides the latest APK for sideloading.
- Obtainium adds boxlore with automatic update tracking.
Android may ask you to allow installation from your browser or file manager when sideloading.
Report a bug · Share an idea · View the roadmap
boxlore is source-available under the PolyForm Strict License 1.0.0. Noncommercial use is allowed; redistribution and derivative works are restricted by the license.