Poweramp Is Back With A New Beta Featuring A Completely New UI, Hi-Res Audio & More

Poweramp has been the go-to music player for listeners who still prefer to store music files locally on their phone. Even though Poweramp hasn't seen an update in over a year and a half, its users have remained loyal and have long been waiting for an update. I'm glad to report that a new beta update is finally available for Poweramp.

Without further ado, here's the list of new features:

Changelog

• new UI
• new navigation:

• swipe or click album art to go to the current playing list
• as previously, swipe album art for the next/previous track, drag more for category change (applies also to the bottom miniplayer)
• use bottom miniplayer to return to the main ui or to change tracks
• swipe left/right from lists for fast return
• pinch-zoom in lists
• and more

• new menus, panels, popups, dialogs, etc.
• new "wave" seekbar
• new visualization panel (appears when a visualization is active, NOTE: filtering/list operations don\'t work yet)
• new notifications (3 different implementations depending on Android version)
• updated Hi-Res (Exp) Output for Android 7.0 (but it doesn't work for Android 8)

• new OpenSL HD Output for Android 8.0.

NOTE: no device detection implemented yet for the new OpenSL HD Output, it will happily report it plays hi-res, even if the device doesn't actually support Hi-Res Audio

The following devices have been tested with OpenSL HD and play Hi-Res properly (Android 8): Samsung S8/S9(+) / Note8, Sony XZ

• this list is incomplete :)

Unlike the old UI where the background color of every screen was set to as dark by default, the new UI extracts colors from the album art and uses them to generate a gradient background. There is also a new navigation bar and a bunch of other visual tweaks. We will soon be having a hands-on article out for the new Poweramp.

Developer Maxim Petrov recommends users not to use this beta build as a daily driver. According to Petrov, this beta preview is not "close in quality to the previous Alpha release" and users can expect the app to crash several times. Functionalities such as that of library categories, adding songs to playlists, and custom lockscreen are not yet available. This beta preview also isn't optimized to work in landscape mode or on tablets.

Petrov expects to add all the aforementioned missing functionalities to the beta preview in the coming month. The developer is targeting a stable v3 release for the end of May or beginning of June. However, depending upon the number of bugs and device specific issues, the update timeline may vary.

Poweramp does have a beta program on Play Store, but at the time of writing this article, I hadn't received the beta preview update via Play Store. If you aren't enrolled as a beta tester for Poweramp, you can do so by clicking here. You can either wait for the beta update to show up on Play Store or manually update by installing the APK file from here. Petrov has asked users to make a backup of their current installation of Poweramp, as it won't be possible to install older versions on top of this beta preview.

Source: Poweramp

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.