██████╗ ██████╗ ███████╗███╗ ██╗██████╗ ██████╗ ██████╗
██╔═══██╗██╔══██╗██╔════╝████╗ ██║██╔══██╗██╔═══██╗██╔══██╗
██║ ██║██████╔╝█████╗ ██╔██╗ ██║██████╔╝██║ ██║██║ ██║
██║ ██║██╔═══╝ ██╔══╝ ██║╚██╗██║██╔═══╝ ██║ ██║██║ ██║
╚██████╔╝██║ ███████╗██║ ╚████║██║ ╚██████╔╝██████╔╝
╚═════╝ ╚═╝ ╚══════╝╚═╝ ╚═══╝╚═╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═════╝
Turn your old smartphone into a dedicated, private, offline music player.
⚠️ Work in Progress — OpenPod is in its very early stages. There are no builds available yet. Everything here represents the vision and direction of the project. Contributions, ideas, and feedback are welcome.
OpenPod is an open-source Android-based firmware that transforms old smartphones into dedicated, offline music players — with a classic iPod-inspired UI, zero bloat, zero tracking, and zero subscriptions.
No streaming. No ads. No Google. Just music.
It is designed for people who:
- Love music and want a pure, distraction-free listening experience
- Have an old Android phone sitting in a drawer doing nothing
- Hate subscription services and want to own their music
- Care about privacy and don't want a music app phoning home
- Want to give old hardware a second life instead of throwing it away
Dedicated MP3 players in 2024 are either:
- Outdated and limited — no Bluetooth, no modern features
- Expensive — good ones cost more than a used flagship phone
- Locked down — proprietary firmware you can't audit or modify
Meanwhile, millions of old Android flagships sit unused in drawers. Phones with better DACs, better Bluetooth, better screens, and more storage than any dedicated MP3 player on the market.
OpenPod turns that old phone into something better than anything you can buy.
A stripped, hardened Android ROM (based on LineageOS/AOSP) that:
- Boots directly into a classic iPod-style UI (powered by Classipod)
- Removes everything that isn't music — no dialer, no camera, no Google, no notifications
- Hardens privacy at the OS level — no telemetry, no network calls, minimal permissions
- Runs offline — your music, your files, your device
- Supports Bluetooth, wired headphones, and high-quality local playback
The first supported device is the Samsung Galaxy S8 (dreamlte / dream2lte):
- ✅ 3.5mm headphone jack with capable DAC
- ✅ Bluetooth 5.0
- ✅ Gorgeous AMOLED display
- ✅ MicroSD card support
- ✅ Excellent LineageOS support
- ✅ Millions of units available cheaply secondhand
More devices will follow as the project matures.
- Set up AOSP/LineageOS build environment for S8
- Strip unnecessary system packages
- Integrate Classipod as default system launcher
- Boot directly into music UI with no Android home screen
- Disable all network services by default
- Custom boot animation
- Hardened privacy layer (no telemetry, verified boot)
- Optimized battery profile for music playback
- Full Bluetooth audio stack testing (A2DP, LDAC, aptX)
- MicroSD auto-scan for music library
- Expand device support beyond S8
- Installer/flasher tool for non-technical users
- Documentation and build guides
- F-Droid compatible companion app (optional)
"Your music player should do one thing and do it perfectly."
OpenPod is built on four principles:
Freedom — Open source, always. Fork it, audit it, modify it.
Privacy — No data collection. No analytics. No network calls. Ever.
Simplicity — One device. One purpose. Music.
Sustainability — Old hardware deserves a second life.
Electronic waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world. Millions of perfectly capable smartphones are discarded every year because they stop receiving software updates — not because the hardware is broken.
OpenPod gives these devices a new purpose. A Galaxy S8 from 2017 has hardware that embarrasses most dedicated MP3 players sold today. It just needs the right software.
OpenPod is developed with a security-first mindset:
- Minimal attack surface — services that don't exist can't be exploited
- No network stack enabled by default
- No Google Play Services or any Google components
- Open source — every line of code is auditable
- Based on LineageOS security patches
OpenPod is in early development. All contributions are welcome:
- Developers — AOSP/LineageOS experience, Flutter/Dart for UI work
- Testers — If you have a supported device and want to test builds
- Designers — UI/UX ideas that stay true to the classic iPod aesthetic
- Documenters — Build guides, device-specific documentation
Open an issue or start a discussion. No contribution is too small.
⚠️ Build instructions are a work in progress. This section will be updated as the project develops.
Requirements:
- Ubuntu 22.04 or later (recommended)
- 16GB+ RAM
- 300GB+ free disk space
- Python 3.x, Git, repo tool
More detailed instructions coming soon.
OpenPod is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
See LICENSE for details.
This project is built on top of LineageOS and Classipod. All original licenses are respected.
- LineageOS — the foundation this project builds on
- Classipod — the beautiful iPod UI at the heart of OpenPod
- Every person who ever had a phone sitting in a drawer
OpenPod — Music the way it should be.
Free. Private. Yours.