Oriole: Torrent Streamer

Dinil

About this app

Oriole is a torrent file browser, downloader and media player. It starts playing while it downloads, plays the formats other apps refuse, and lets you decide where the files come from.

YOU CHOOSE THE SOURCE

On first launch Oriole asks one question: where should files come from? Until you answer it, the app contacts nothing at all.

• The public domain library: one tap, no account. Films, music, books and software free for everyone — public domain or openly licensed, curated by the developer.
• Your own server: point Oriole at any index that speaks its open protocol, one you run yourself or one you trust.

Oriole does not host, index or distribute content — it is a client. It talks to the server you chose, to the BitTorrent swarm, to the trackers a torrent names, and to one public list of trackers it refreshes at most daily.

WATCHING

• Streaming while downloading. Tap a result and the picture starts. The file arrives behind it, ordered around the playhead rather than front to back.
• Plays what browsers won't. It is built on libVLC, so AVI/Xvid, MKV, AC-3, E-AC-3 and DTS all play, with sound.
• Cast to your TV. A Chromecast plays anything: what it cannot decode, Oriole converts on the phone. A DLNA smart TV — Samsung, LG, Sony and most sets of the last decade — plays the file itself, phone idle, and refuses what it cannot decode (AVI or Dolby sound, most often) rather than converting, unless it also has Chromecast built in. Fire TV and Roku use their own protocols: Oriole lists them and says so.
• A real audio player: cover art from the release, lock screen controls, playback with the screen off.
• Subtitle and audio tracks, picture-in-picture, playback speed, and a buffer bar showing what has arrived.
• Saved files play offline, with no torrent behind them. A Files screen shows what Oriole holds on disk, and clears it.

FINDING

• Search by name, filtering on category, resolution, year, seeders and how recently it was indexed — or browse the whole index.
• Bookmarks in folders you name, that keep working: a saved result stores the whole record, so it plays after the index has moved on. Export as plain text, or import a list.
• Optional AI search: ask in your own words, with your own API key.

TRACKING A TOPIC (optional, needs your own AI key)

Write a standing question once — "new Blender open movies", "latest Ubuntu releases" — pick how often to check, and Oriole re-runs it in the background, merging whatever is new. Every row plays and bookmarks like any result.

• Every 12 hours, daily, weekly or monthly.
• A digest notification when something turns up, silenced per topic.
• Your own AI key, so it spends your credit and nobody else's — and a phone left in a drawer stops checking rather than running up a bill.
• Off until you create a topic.

MAKING IT YOURS

• Seven themes, five dark and two light, each checked for contrast.
• Seven geometric backgrounds, and figures behind the music screen.

NEW TO ANY OF THIS?

Tap the question mark in the search bar: plain answers for anyone new to torrents — what one is, what "5 people sharing" means, and why a big film with few of them is slow to start.

BROWSING INSIDE A TORRENT

Every file is listed, not just the playable ones. Video, audio, images and text open in the app; anything else saves to your phone and opens in the app you already use.

HONEST ABOUT DATA

Streaming a torrent downloads the file — there is no smaller version behind the scenes. Oriole says so before it starts, defaults to Wi-Fi only, and asks before spending mobile data.

No ads. No accounts. No analytics or tracking of any kind. Your settings, bookmarks and keys stay on your phone.

Like any BitTorrent software, taking part in a swarm makes your IP address visible to other peers. You are responsible for what you access and for respecting copyright where you live.

The index protocol is published under the MIT license, so anyone can build a compatible server: github.com/raul2hot/torrent-stream-protocol

What’s new

Playlists: make lists from the files saved on your phone and play them through the ordinary player, with repeat beside shuffle. The player now folds into a bar that keeps playing while you find the next thing.
The music screen follows the music. Saved tracks are read on the phone for their spectrum — nothing is recorded, no permission is asked — and every figure moves with it. New default: Warp, stars streaming past with the bass as the throttle.