A request to Emby - please clarify the situation with the AndroidTv app

[ebr 16169]

I will say that the most likely thing that is going to force us completely off of the TV app will be Google itself.  As they increase requirements for maintaining apps in the store, when adjusting to these becomes more work than we are willing to duplicate, then that will be when we'll no longer be able to update it.

[Checkoutside 17]

So what you are saying is that we should just get used to an app that:

1) For over a year can't even show photos at the correct size (Android TV app has no such issue)

2) Takes a few thousand back button presses to get out of (very easy to get out of the Android TV app)

3) Confuses people at the end of TV episodes with the displayed choices (Android Tv app is so clear)

and so on. I am sure there are many more. Using this logic I am sure you will not want to make an app for the new Firestick OS, so you do not have to duplicate it. Good thing I have no interest in that device. This is getting very frustrating, I used to like Emby very much.

[Guest]

On 10/10/2025 at 8:09 AM, ebr said:

I will say that the most likely thing that is going to force us completely off of the TV app will be Google itself.  As they increase requirements for maintaining apps in the store, when adjusting to these becomes more work than we are willing to duplicate, then that will be when we'll no longer be able to update it.

 

So earlier in the thread Luke suggests we will be able to keep using it.

"HI, you will still be able to use it. It's not going anywhere, and if it breaks, we will keep it compatible for a while"

 

 

And now we have ebr saying that isn't true. 

The entire point of this thread was for clarity on the situation.  

 

Should those not happy with the android app start looking at jellyfin?  Or are you doing to keep the androidTV app that actually works correctly?  

[FrostByte 5392]

18 minutes ago, Checkoutside said:

 

2) Takes a few thousand back button presses to get out of (very easy to get out of the Android TV app)

 

In the new app you can hard press the Back button which takes you to the Home screen from just about anywhere in one click.  Then you can exit similar to the old app using either left menu or top.

You can also just shell out of the app from anywhere by hard pressing the Home button 

[FrostByte 5392]

1 minute ago, embaaa said:

 

So earlier in the thread Luke suggests we will be able to keep using it.

"HI, you will still be able to use it. It's not going anywhere, and if it breaks, we will keep it compatible for a while"

 

 

And now we have ebr saying that isn't true. 

The entire point of this thread was for clarity on the situation.  

 

Should those not happy with the android app start looking at jellyfin?  Or are you doing to keep the androidTV app that actually works correctly?  

I don't see why you need Google to install ATV.  You can always sideload it.  As long as the devs keep it alive in case of server changes.  Since normal development has slowed the need to sideload shouldn't be too often.

[kikinjo 281]

On 10/10/2025 at 2:09 PM, ebr said:

I will say that the most likely thing that is going to force us completely off of the TV app will be Google itself.  As they increase requirements for maintaining apps in the store, when adjusting to these becomes more work than we are willing to duplicate, then that will be when we'll no longer be able to update it.

This statement is from emby dev, while the same dev team is actively working on 20+ different client / platform emby apps ( see download page 22 of them).

Some of those clients / platforms are so obscure and have very little number of users compared to Android platform that is nonsense to read this whining about we dont have time....

[pagali 62]

On 10/9/2025 at 3:24 PM, Luke said:

Whichever you prefer, but we suggest Emby for android.

I tried to follow your advice not long ago on my Nvidia Shield 2019, but discovered that Emby for Android did not display subtitle SRT files properly. FOr instance, music note indicators of song lyrics appeared as a plain square box instead of a musical note. I went right back to Emby for Android TV, and all was fine again.

[Luke 42077]

8 minutes ago, pagali said:

I tried to follow your advice not long ago on my Nvidia Shield 2019, but discovered that Emby for Android did not display subtitle SRT files properly. FOr instance, music note indicators of song lyrics appeared as a plain square box instead of a musical note. I went right back to Emby for Android TV, and all was fine again.

When you say display properly, is it just that one thing?

[FrostByte 5392]

As someone who always watches movies with SDH subtitles on I've got to say the music symbol is pretty high on my list of annoyances. I end up using the Samsung app most the time though.

[pagali 62]

On 10/25/2025 at 2:59 PM, Luke said:

When you say display properly, is it just that one thing?

That's the first thing I noticed while testing, and it was not acceptable for me, so I didn't bother to explore any further.

[Luke 42077]

15 hours ago, pagali said:

That's the first thing I noticed while testing, and it was not acceptable for me, so I didn't bother to explore any further.

Can you give it a try and see if you notice anything else?

[ransomshell 8]

On 9/25/2025 at 11:10 PM, Luke said:

HI, you will still be able to use it. It's not going anywhere, and if it breaks, we will keep it compatible for a while.

Hi, can you fix YouTube trailers? Fixed in universal but still broken in Android TV.

[jalfrezi 3]

Yes. I cannot get trailers to work on Android TV but they work on Android?

[Luke 42077]

35 minutes ago, jalfrezi said:

Yes. I cannot get trailers to work on Android TV but they work on Android?

Right it had to be rebuilt due to changes from youtube.

[ransomshell 8]

Will Android TV get the same fix or is it abandoned? 

 

[ebr 16169]

10 hours ago, ransomshell said:

Will Android TV get the same fix or is it abandoned? 

 

It may get updated and made available as an APK.  Changes at Google are currently blocking us from releasing a new version via the store.

[CBers 7450]

Reading though these posts is like going back 5 years in time, where all of the questions have already been asked

As most people here know, I am an ardent ATV app user, but even I have to admit that the Universal Android app has come a long way in those 5 years, but it still isn't as good as the ATV app!
 
The ATV app is buttery smooth, as it has been built for a specific platform, whereas the Universal Android app has been shoe-horned into the same space.

There are currenrtly 95+ pages discussing the differences between the app in the link above, with many items still outstanding.

I can't see how 2 apps developed for the same device/platform are so different in the way they act, seeing as they were developed by the same team of developers.

Anyway, until there is no other choice, I will continue to use the ATV app, and try and report all of the issues with the Universal Android app, when I see substantive changes.
 

Edited November 5, 2025 by CBers

[rbjtech 5284]

I too really tried to like Emby for Android, I ran it for about 6 weeks on my main TV/Shield Pro, purposefully not using Emby for AndroidTV - I held my ground despite all the frustration in navigation, poor lethargic performance and frequent crashes and hangs, especially on Live/Recorded TV and have come to same conclusion as @CBersabove - it's STILL a significant downgrade on AndroidTV.  I gave in on Sunday night after it refused again to allow skimming/ffd/rwd a recorded program so the App got deleted. Back to Emby for AndroidTV and as it always has done, eveything simply 'worked' in the swift, graceful and beautiful manner that I'm used to. 

@ebrIf the only updates are via sideload, then I've no issues with that, as that is the way I updated anyway - but PLEASE do not abandon AndroidTV..it's replacement is far from ready. 

Edited November 5, 2025 by rbjtech

[Jdiesel 1431]

I'm somewhat content with the Emby for Android app at this point. It isn't perfect but it's at least usable for me now. Removal of the side bar would probably get me to being fully content.

My biggest gripe is how the two different apps exist on the app store and how much confusion it adds to users. The Emby for Android app should have been developed in a beta channel or as a side load only until it was ready to be a complete replacement for the Emby for Android TV app, at which point it should have replaced it under the same Google Play listing. Now there is two versions floating out in the wild, one of which will no longer be supported. Any one who doesn't frequent the forums would have no idea about the two versions and would just install whatever one comes up first when you search "Emby" which happens to be the Emby for Android TV version. To get the Emby for Android version on a streamer you need to search "Emb". That's not intuitive at all.

Just last week at had a user message me about trailers not working on their Android box. I had to explain to them that the reason it didn't work is that the Emby app they were using hasn't been updated with a fix for YouTube trailers yet and that they should switch to the "new" Emby app. To do this they needed to search for "Emb" and not "Emby". Want to guess how confused they were? Very.

[Guest]

Isn't the trailer feature pure garbage on emby anyways?  I vote to just remove the trailer button on all apps and stop promoting that as a feature.  

 

 

[ransomshell 8]

4 minutes ago, embaaa said:

Isn't the trailer feature pure garbage on emby anyways?  I vote to just remove the trailer button on all apps and stop promoting that as a feature.  

 

 

You might be thinking about plugins. The built-in trailer functionality that plays YouTube videos directly from YouTube is great, on Android TV, when it works. 

 

Edited November 5, 2025 by ransomshell

[Neminem 1518]

3 minutes ago, embaaa said:

I vote to just remove the trailer button on all apps and stop promoting that as a feature. 

How would I then watch my local trailer

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Neminem said:

How would I then watch my local trailer

I didn't realize people were watching local trailers too. 

 

2 minutes ago, ransomshell said:

You might be thinking about plugins. The built-in trailer functionality that plays YouTube videos directly from YouTube is great, on Android TV, when it works. 

 

Understood.  I thought everyone complained the trailers were worse than 240p when streaming from YouTube.  

 

I personally think trailers give away the entire movie so I never watch them.  I now realize the feature is not garbage.    

[Guest]

3 hours ago, CBers said:

There are currenrtly 95+ pages discussing the differences between the app in the link above, with many items still outstanding.

I can't see how 2 apps developed for the same device/platform are so different in the way they act, seeing as they were developed by the same team of developers.
 

I'd love to hear a response from emby on this.  Was the androidTV app actually developed by someone not on the team anymore?   There isn't even a comparison between the 2 apps from a user perspective. 

Never mind the hideous UI differences the android app has

it doesn't even do basic playback right...

It doesn't even run without crashing....

[ebr 16169]

19 minutes ago, embaaa said:

Understood.  I thought everyone complained the trailers were worse than 240p when streaming from YouTube.  

Hi.  That issue was corrected a while ago.