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. |
🚨 Critical:
- Fixed a release-build issue that could prevent automatic and Smart downloads from starting.
- Smaller app download while retaining artwork, fonts and notification sounds.
- Meet boxlore with a new welcome screen: moving podcast covers, a playful invitation and clear choices to find shows, search or import your library.
- Welcome adapts to smaller screens and larger text, and respects your phone's animation settings.
- Choose the new bunpod player in Appearance settings for a minimal listening screen with larger titles, artwork-inspired colors and expressive controls. Your queue and miniplayer stay the same.
- The boxlore Brief has refreshed regional artwork, clearer headlines and layouts that match your light or dark theme.
- Choose your default Brief edition without changing your podcast discovery region.
- Account setup and cloud sync have clearer progress and actions, with no miniplayer covering the page.
- Daily Mix episode cards are easier to distinguish across themes.
- A refreshed Home brings larger artwork, readable titles and clearer listening progress. Tap artwork to play or a title to open episode details.
- Your shows and Daily mix now share a smoother layout with expressive selections and transitions.
- Missing artwork uses the boxlore mark, and cards have more consistent tap feedback across the app.
- Explore has refreshed cards, genre filters and collection shortcuts that match Home.
- Swipe between For You and Top, keep search within reach while scrolling, and switch tabs above the player.
- Search suggestions and results are easier to scan, with distinct cards for shows and episodes.
- Download updates in boxlore if you installed from GitHub, with download progress and checks before installation.
- Read release notes and upcoming changes from Settings → Check for updates.
- Read longer announcements in compact or full-screen layouts, with actions that stay visible as you scroll.
- Browse shows with clearer controls, compact episode cards and search that keeps the episode list in view.
- Let podcast and episode pages match their artwork, or turn artwork colors off in Appearance.
- Create your own theme with live light and dark previews.
- Open episodes with clearer playback controls, artwork and reading layouts.
- Find chapters and useful links more easily, with recognizable icons and shorter social profile labels.
- Browse the show’s five latest episodes directly from the episode page.
- Browse Home with clearer sections, sharper artwork and refreshed Daily Mix cards.
- Enjoy updated colours and logos, with time-of-day animations that wait until the heading is in view.
- Share episodes with cleaner “Listen on boxlore” branding.
- 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.
- Home’s setup options now use a compact layout with clearer choices to find shows, search podcasts or import your library.
- Customize your theme with a live preview, quick color choices and more precise controls.
- Enjoy refined Classic, Pure and Material 3 colors, with clearer panels and episode cards in Pure mode.
- 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.
- Older Briefs show the correct artwork after an update or cloud restore, without losing listening progress.
- Episode artwork can fall back to the show cover when its image is unavailable.
- Covers that failed to load can recover after reconnecting or loading successfully on another page.
- New episodes appear newest first, and the offline Daily mix action takes you to downloads.
- Back from a collection returns to where you were in Explore.
- Search cards show a specific genre when available, instead of a generic Podcast label.
- Rounded controls keep their shape while scrolling and pressing.
- Notification actions open the intended screen or link whether boxlore is already open or starting.
- Prepared updates remain available after returning from Android's install-permission settings or cancelling installation.
- Smoother page colors when opening details, loading another page or going back.
- Featured-show cards now recognize more introductions to other podcasts.
- Social links use a profile username when known, instead of repeating the platform name.
- Daily Mix now uses show artwork when an episode has none.
- A caught-up Daily Mix takes up less space.
- 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.