foobar2000

Accessibility and User Comments:

Although closed source and quite hard to get used to for some, Foobar has imprinted a lasting impression, especially for audiophiles and power users. Both on Windows and on Android, you'll see that Foobar is not a simple player that can just work. On Windows, for example, the player comes with no shortcuts setup other than CTRL+S to save a playlist and CTRL+F to find a song, plus CTRL+P to open the comprehensive preferences window, from where you can even configure these keyboard shortcuts. On Android, working by the same philosophy, Foobar only scans the Foobar2000 folder, which, when you first install the app, is empty, waiting for you to either add folders to the media library or put something in the folder.

Although these things may seem frustrating for some, Foobar's philosophy is simple: Don't impose anything on the user. Even though it's harder to setup, the developers believe that the choice should purely be in the hands of the player, no matter if it's about configuring keyboard shortcuts or adding folders/files to the media library. And, to be honest, I personally agree with it. Although harder to configure and setup initially, Foobar can become any player you're used to, especially on desktop platforms where you can configure your keyboard shortcuts just the way you like and transform it into any player you wish.

Our focus, however, is Foobar for Android. The app started as fully inaccessible, with all controls being unlabeled. Moreover, most controls couldn't even be focused with a screen reader. Recently, however, that has changed. Every single control has now been labeled, all of them are reachable, and the Android version of Foobar2000 can finally be used by a screen reader user.

Foobar2000 Initial Setup: Things You Should Do Before Opening the App

As the greeting appears, welcoming you to Foobar2000 mobile, you're already asked to choose an appearance: either dark or light theme. Light is the first option, already checked. If you want this, continue to swipe further. If you want the dark theme, swipe once to the right to find it. Note that when clicking on either of these options, focus will be reset to the greeting message. When done, click "Next."

As you click next, the window title reads: "Foobar2000 Mobile Setup." This window has a few options:

• My music is already on this device: Tells Foobar that you have music on your phone.
• Help me transfer my music: Lets you choose between TuneFUSION, a music transfer app, or making a local FTP server for transferring your music library.
• Skip introduction and start using Foobar2000 mobile: Skips the setup entirely.

After clicking next, provided that you manually gave Foobar2000 all files access on Android 12+, you'll see the "Media Library" popup with Foobar also scanning the music folder. You can also add folders and URL locations directly from the setup screen. When you're done, click "Next" to continue. The last window of the setup shows you that the setup is complete. If you want to start using Foobar, click "Finish".

Foobar2000 Main Window: Choosing How You Filter Songs and What to Browse

The home window, "Browse," allows you to browse songs by album/artist, song title, and more. Options include:

• Album, Artist/Album: Shows artists and albums, songs in folders.
• Album: Shows folders with metadata tagged as album.
• Title: Browse songs by metadata title.
• Shuffle all tracks
• Shuffle all albums
• Composer, Genre, Style, Advanced Search
• Foobar2000 Music Folder
• Internal and USB storage
• Playlists
• Internet radio
• Media servers

Advanced Search: The Ultimate Filtering Experience

The advanced search menu contains a list full of filtering options such as artist, album by release, album by artist, compilation, contributing artist, and more. For large music libraries, this functionality is incredibly helpful.

Tools: The Player's Menu Bar

The "Tools" menu provides access to various settings, utilities, and more. Here is the menu, from top to bottom:

• Settings: Change skins, configure media library, set up network passwords.
• DSP Manager: Configure advanced audio effects.
• Utilities: Replay Gain scanner, console, FTP server, Sync with TuneFUSION.
• Playback controls: Control playback with options like stop, play, pause, next, and volume.

DSP Manager: Manage and Control the Sound of Your Audio

The last but not least menu of Foobar I'm going to show you is the DSP Manager. This menu contains advanced audio effects you can apply, which only affect Foobar. It's important to exercise caution here. All the DSP effects have a toggle and a configure button next to them.

• Advanced limiter: Configure a limiter as advanced as a dedicated music production one, with attack, threshold, sustain, release, etc.
• Convert mono to stereo: Duplicates the channels if the track is mono.
• Crossfader: Configure how tracks blend one into the other, similar to Spotify's crossfading.
• Downmix channels to mono: Smart mono DSP that prevents losing detail when listening in mono.
• Downmix channels to stereo: A smart way of channel conversion preserving more quality, instead of duplication.
• Echo: Delay.
• Equalizer: The best equalizer seen on a player, in my opinion.
• Hard -6db limiter: Aggressive limiting.
• Meier crossfeed: Simulate speaker listening on headphones.
• Push the tempo: Time-stretching algorithm to change the tempo of a song. Not sure how good this is, as I never tested it.
• Resampler: Similar to Samsung's UHQ upscaling from settings.
• Reverb: Customizable reverb effect.
• Reverse stereo channels: Reverses left and right channels.
• Skip silence: Skips silence when the volume drops below a customizable threshold.

As we took a quick Foobar2000 tour, you can see it's not a simple player. The options are so complex that it takes a lot of time for you to experience everything it has to offer. Just like on any other desktop platform, Foobar2000 is truly delivering to its expectations: options, availability, and power.

The app is totally usable with a screen reader, but it's important to note the following:

1. The app doesn't support any accessibility actions. Unfortunately, Foobar2000 developers are known for their hard-to-reach settings, especially through the Google Play Store. I'll provide an update once the actions are implemented, if we are able to contact them.
2. When playing a song, Foobar will automatically switch to a blank page, so you don't accidentally click and play something else by mistake. Swipe back right with two fingers to return to the page with the items to play.

Besides these notes, everything is properly working. The playback controls properly show on the lock screen as well.

In conclusion, the full accessibility of Foobar2000 for Android has really changed my life as a music listener. Being able to just stream my music from my computer to my phone just by having them connected to the same network makes it so convenient I wouldn't leave at all. The audio effects, the advanced filtering options, and the internet radio all make Foobar2000 the go-to player for me. I would truly rate this app ten stars if possible without a second thought, just like I would for any other platform.

As of November 11th, 2024, it's way easier to configure your media library as well. However, if you're on Android 12 or higher, please manually allow the all-files access to Foobar, so the window appears. Alternatively, configure your media library from tools.

Last Tested App version and Android version:

1.6.4. Android 14.