A redesigned streaming experience makes its debut — explore Spotty, Qobuz, and Tidal with a new artist page, grouped releases, and a unified search. Plus: dynamic playlists, and a radio panel in Now Playing.

# New
## Experimental streaming interface for Spotty, Qobuz, and Tidal:
- home pages rebuilt with horizontal card shelves and paginated entry points. (Enabled by default; can be turned off in Experimental Features.)
- Unified search: Spotty, Qobuz, and Tidal now use the app's top search button.
- Streaming artist page: view artist biographies and browse releases grouped into Albums, EPs, and Singles.
- Improved streaming album and playlist pages: jump to the artist page and discover related albums in a grouped section.

## Cached Playback
- Opus decoding support for cached playback. (Requires manual custom-convert.conf setup.)
- DSTM support for cached playback: select the DSTM source in Advanced settings. Limited support; requires the Remote Player Companion plugin.
- Playback history sync when reconnecting after being offline. Limited support; requires the Remote Player Companion plugin.

## Others
- Dynamic playlists support. (Requires the Dynamic Playlists plugin.)
- Radio panel in Now Playing for quick station switching. (Can be disabled in Now Playing appearance settings.)
- Material Skin Custom Action support.
- Quick Actions now include dynamic playlists and streaming service shortcuts.

# Improved
- Search scope selector moved into the icon on the left side of the search bar.
- Larger tap areas for the More button and custom toolbar icons.
- Quick Action settings now support long-press to edit and drag to reorder.
- Full-screen Now Playing layout refined.

# Fixed
- Fixed a CarPlay white-screen issue that could occur in certain situations.
- Fixed an issue where playback could be silent after switching to Cached Playback mode.
- Fixed an issue where the built-in player could keep outputting noise when switching sample depths.
- Fixed an issue where Appearance settings could not be opened from the Now Playing More menu.
- Fixed a potential app crash when the server was abnormal.
- Fixed dim VU meters during playback so meters stay illuminated.
- Fixed several other issues and text errors.

NEW FEATURES

Cached Playback
Cached playback is built for unstable mobile networks. It pre-caches local library files from your playlist onto your iOS device, giving the built-in player a steady stream to work with.
• Experimental. Turn on "Local Media Service" under Experimental Features first. A new "Cached Playback" section then appears in the built-in player settings.
• One-tap mode switch. A toggle in the top-right corner of the Now Playing dialog flips between Remote and Cached mode.
• Cache status in the queue. Every track in the current playlist shows its state: green for cached, yellow for caching.
• Dedicated status page. A new page shows cached playback details. It opens by itself when the server goes offline during playback.
• Works in CarPlay. Cached playback is available in the car as well, so you can keep listening with the built-in player.
• MP3 by default. Your Lyrion Music Server needs MP3 transcoding enabled.
• Local library only. Cached playback does not cover radio or streaming services, so check that your content is supported before you rely on it.

Other
• Favorites sorting. Sort your favorites by original order, reverse order, or alphabetically. Radio keeps its own separate sort setting.
• Connect by hostname. A new switch in Server settings. It is off by default, which means the IP address is preferred. Adjust it to suit your network.
• Faster Boxset view. All songs now load in one pass, cutting the waiting and scrolling stutter caused by paged loading.
• AND / OR filtering. The filter box at the top of lists now supports both match modes. Configure it under Advanced settings.
• Go to track in release. A new option in the three-dot menu of search results jumps straight to that track's position in the album.
• Force the volume slider. For players that don't support volume control, you can now make the volume bar always visible in player settings.
• Tap lyrics to dismiss. Tap anywhere in the lyrics detail page to close it, with no need to find the close button.
• Pause on disconnect. Playback now pauses when a Bluetooth headset or other audio device disconnects, so audio doesn't suddenly blast from the speaker.

IMPROVEMENTS

• "Discover Music" performance. Fixed a deadlock that hurt page loading and interaction.
• Now Playing info loads more reliably. Album, artist, and work details no longer leave you staring at a blank page.
• Lock screen artwork caching. Recommended covers now use an in-memory cache. We removed the synchronous disk read and repeated decoding on every render.
• Consistent player and server pages. The player management page and the server switching page now share one color scheme and grouped background, in both light and dark mode.
• Consistent purchase pages. Grouped backgrounds and primary buttons now follow a single pattern.
• Smoother full-screen entry. The bottom button row now animates in together with the content instead of appearing on its own.
• Better iPad portrait transition. The playlist no longer fades in early. It rises with the main view first, then fades in.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed Live Activity artwork problems. Covers no longer mismatch after a track change, oversized covers are no longer dropped, and duplicate icons no longer linger.
• Fixed off-center artwork in the Vinyl theme, so covers stay visually centered.
• Fixed artwork that was too wide during iPad portrait full-screen playback.
• Favorites no longer fail as a whole batch. A failed artist avatar or playlist cover now degrades gracefully instead of taking the rest down with it.
• Fixed misaligned icon and text in the experimental features info card.
• Fixed DSTM control commands being sent to the wrong player.
• Fixed various other bugs and copy errors, improving overall stability and text accuracy.

# New Features

## Dynamic Island & Lock Screen
- Dynamic Island live activity now supported on iPhone (built-in player only). Displays album art, title, artist, playback progress, and controls when switching to the desktop or other apps
- Lock Screen live activity: shows current playback info and random album recommendations

## Full-Screen VU Meter & Spectrum
- VU meter and spectrum are built-in player exclusive features, presented in landscape mode on iPhone
- iPad users can tap the VU meter or spectrum button at the bottom-left of the full-screen player to switch views
- iPhone users can tap an empty area on the full-screen player to reveal VU meter and spectrum switcher at the top
- When in VU meter or spectrum view, tap an empty area to reveal song info, playback controls, and view switcher
- Customizable default full-screen view (Player / VU Meter / Spectrum / Last Used)
- 5 new VU meter styles: Power, McIntosh, Nagra (round), Retro, and Teac
- Quickly switch between VU meter styles using the left/right arrows on the overlay

## All-New Cassette Tape Interface
- Brand new cassette tape playback theme with meticulously rendered reel rotation, tape winding animation, and mechanical cassette shell details
- Two tape appearances available: metal large-reel and standard cassette
- Tape reels visually reflect playback progress in real time
- VU meter now features a power-off effect — needles gracefully return to zero when playback stops
- Tap the cassette to quickly switch tape styles; tap the VU meter to switch VU meter styles
- Dedicated cassette appearance settings (Settings → Appearance → Now Playing → Theme → Cassette): adjust tape type and VU meter independent/system mode

## iPhone Landscape Experience
- iPhone full-screen player now supports landscape mode with automatic orientation switching
- Album detail, artist, and other pages adapted for landscape layout
- Settings and dialogs fully adapted for landscape; pop-up panels automatically switch to scroll view in landscape
- Experimental landscape feature toggle added (Settings → Advanced → Experimental Features)
- Force landscape lock available in SqueezeDeck mode

## Others
- New retro analog clock screensaver with date and weekday display (SqueezeDeck mode)
- Customizable Deck screensaver clock style (Digital / Analog)

# Improvements
- VU meter needle smoothing algorithm moved to the underlying engine for more fluid, natural motion
- Unified piecewise interpolation for all 5 VU meter scale mappings, eliminating substantial duplicate code
- Spectrum animation rendering engine rebuilt for more stable frame rates and lower power consumption
- Optimized screensaver night mode detection logic
- Cassette interface button spacing and sizing refined for more precise tap targets
- Song title automatically switches to horizontal scroll when marquee effect is turned off, so info is never lost
- iPad full-screen overlay layout optimized with larger, easier-to-tap buttons
- Bottom sheet panel width unified on iPhone for a more consistent visual appearance
- Spectrum and VU meter transition animations improved, eliminating residual flickering

# Bug Fixes
- Fixed UI freezing caused by high-frequency list refresh callbacks on iOS 16 devices
- Fixed orientation being hardcoded on iOS versions below 16, causing incorrect rotation behavior
- Fixed long titles being truncated on the iPad navigation bar back button
- Fixed artist name displaying incorrectly after disabling the marquee effect