Android Overview
The Android apps bring your Sovereign library to phones, tablets and Android-based TVs. Like the Roku channel, they cover browsing, playback, favorites and your own account, and everything on your account follows you between clients.
Administration stays on the web interface.
The Three Apps
Section titled “The Three Apps”Sovereign builds three Android apps, one per kind of device:
| App | For |
|---|---|
| Mobile | Android phones and tablets |
| Android TV | Android TV and Google TV devices |
| Fire TV | Amazon Fire TV sticks, cubes and TVs |
The two TV apps share every screen and differ only in how they present themselves to their platform’s launcher. Both are built for the remote’s directional pad. The Mobile app has its own touch layout covering the same screens.
All three need Android 8.0 or newer. On Fire TV that rules out the oldest Fire OS 5 and 6 devices, which can’t install the app.
Installing
Section titled “Installing”The apps aren’t in the Google Play Store or the Amazon Appstore. Each release publishes one APK per app, and you sideload the one that matches your device: FireTV for Amazon Fire TV, AndroidTV for Android TV and Google TV, Mobile for phones and tablets. All three share a version number.
The app’s version and commit appear on the server setup screen and on the Profile tab of Account.
Connecting and Signing In
Section titled “Connecting and Signing In”On first launch the app asks for your server’s address. It tries a bare host name over https first and then http, unless the Secure connections only (https) toggle is on, when it tries only https. The toggle starts on for a new install. If your server sits behind an authenticating proxy, Custom headers on the same screen lets you add up to five name/value pairs that are sent with every request; Remote Access explains when you need them.
The sign-in screen takes the same username and password you use on the web. When the server supports it, the screen also offers to sign in from another device: Sign in on another device on the TV apps, Sign in with a code on Mobile. The app shows an address and a short code; open the address on a phone or computer where you’re already signed in, enter the code on the Device Pairing page, and the app signs itself in once you approve it. Change server returns to the address step.
An account an administrator hasn’t approved yet signs in to an Awaiting approval screen with a Sign out button. When a session expires, the app returns to the sign-in screen and says so.
More Than One Person on a Device
Section titled “More Than One Person on a Device”Everyone in the house can stay signed in on the same TV or phone. Once two or more people are signed in to your server, the app opens on Who’s watching? and starts as whoever you pick: tiles on the TV apps, a list on a phone. The app also asks again when it comes back after an hour in the background, but never during playback; your administrator can change that hour with the UserPickerAfterMinutes setting in Configuration.
Add user, at the end of the picker and on the Profile tab of Account, opens the sign-in screen for someone new. Whoever is signed in stays signed in until the new sign-in succeeds. Switch user on the same tab brings the picker back, and Sign out there signs out only you.
Change server is on the sign-in screen, the picker and the Profile tab. Moving the app to another server doesn’t sign anybody out: the people signed in to the old server stay on the device, and they’re back on the picker when you change back to it.
Up to Five People per Device
Section titled “Up to Five People per Device”Each device holds five signed-in people at most, the same limit as the Roku channel. The limit comes from the Roku’s hardware rather than from Sovereign: a Roku gives each channel 16 KB of storage for everything it keeps, and five sessions is what fits. The Android apps keep the same five so that every TV in the house follows one rule.
The five counts everyone signed in on the device, on every server. At the limit Add user disappears, and when some of those people are signed in to another server, the picker and the Profile tab say so: “This device holds 5 users, and some are signed in to other servers. Change server to sign one out.” A sign-in that wouldn’t fit is refused with the same line, or with “This device can’t hold another user.” when everyone is on this server. Nobody already signed in is signed out to make room. To free a place, use Change server to go back to the other server, pick someone there and choose Sign out on their Profile tab, which also ends their session on that server.
Navigation
Section titled “Navigation”On the TV apps, an icon rail down the left edge leads to Home, Movies, TV Series, People, Favorites and Search, with your avatar at its foot opening Account.
On Mobile, the menu button at the top left opens a drawer with Home, Movies, TV, People, Favorites and Search, and the avatar at the top right opens Account.
When your server has a licensing notice to show, it appears as a bar across the top of these screens, coloured by how urgent it is. It never covers playback; see Licensing for what it says and why.
Browsing covers the library screens, Video Player the player, and Account your profile and preferences.
Titles, artwork, people and descriptions shown in screenshots are fictional and were created for illustration. Sovereign doesn't include or supply any media: it plays the library you bring.