MinusOne Music

MinusOne Cloud Music (减一云音乐, also MinusOne Music as app name) is a lite third-party NCM app for Android.

In developing this app, I will explore how to create a more complex app. The focus is not on creativity but on the technical aspects of implementing core features of NCM using relatively modern approaches.

Note: I am very inexperienced and this app is at a very early stage of development. Current progress by screens:

• Well Implemented

  • 我的

    • 我的—音乐

  • 播放

    • 迷你播放器
    • 播放页
    • 播放列表（即歌单）

  • 发现

    • 每日推荐

• Partial Implementation

  • 密码登录/退出登录
  • 我的
    • 最近播放—歌曲
    • 云盘
    • 本地音乐
    • 听歌排行
  • 发现
    • 发现首页（顶部入口、私人雷达、排行榜）
    • 排行榜
  • 搜索（“综合”Tab之“单曲”）
  • 评论（Hottest Page 1）

• 所述界面一般不包括二级界面等
• Other UI elements, pages or functionalities are nowhere near completed although some drafts exist.

The project is currently in maintenance mode, meaning no major new features will be implemented in the short term. However, its development doesn't stop and I'm open to considering user requests that are not overly complex.

• Focus has now shifted a little bit away from mobile Android dev to other areas.
• Occasionally, I will also code for doubean.

Features

It will provide a 99% pure music experience with basic support of social features (not implemented yet).

• -1 (jiǎn yī)! No ads. No podcasts. No square. Fewer VIP UI elements. Tailored UI content. Incredibly small APK size.

  Here are important non-to-dos

  • Core functionalities and UI retained, but only on a best-effort basis.
  • Non additive or subtractive modifications. Some convenient UI/behavior changes can be toggled in Settings (not implemented yet).
  • No extra features.

• Music playback.

• Natural (without special adaptations) tablet/landscape support.

• Direct up-to-date NCM service provided. You will see a lot of new interfaces that haven't been discovered by any other developer.

• Uses View-based system & Single Activity architecture.

• Uses deviceId as the seed to pseudo-randomly generate device specs for privacy.

• Is NOT modified from the decompiled official NCM app although the two apps look very similar.

• Does NOT hack music resources.

Notices

It is strongly encouraged to use the official NCM app rather than third-party ones like mine. If you insist in using my app, please agree on the following restrictions, which can change over time:

• The official app must be installed and co-exist with it.
• The docs are written in broken English.
• The app is almost fully closed source. (Maintaining an extra semi-open code base would lead to heavy burden!) hence the simple public repo. If you don't trust me, you can reverse-engineer the app. If interested in some non-NCM-bound code, feel free to request it.

Your do's and don'ts

• Please use it only for personal learning purposes.
• Please don't share it on other websites/apps without permission.

Screenshot

☕

❤️

To-dos

• What to maintain
  • Minor adjustments
    • ...
  • Code optimizations
  • User requests are open
• Dark theme support
• Basic drawer
• Update UI for latest NCM
  • Discover
  • Mini player bar
  • Player screen
  • Should be delayed until at least NCM 9.1.10 when the official UI is more "stable"
• Release alpha on arrival of new star/issue
• Play log (need help)
• New screens / major features
  • Personal FMs
  • Friends
  • MVs
  • Playlist Square (uncertain if it's necessary)
  • Statusbar lyrics
• Player & playlist UI
  • Mini Player Bar
    • Swipe
    • Hide like PlayControlView
    • Fix top shadow
  • Transition between Mini Player Bar & Now Playing
  • Now Playing
    • Use light status bar text
    • Follow
    • Provide bottom volume bar dialog (instead of showing sytem volume toast) for systems of lower versions (where the built-in output switcher dialog is unavailable).
    • Use LinearLayout with "weight" things for control buttons
    • Disk rotation like https://music.163.com/m/song
  • Playlist UI items
    • Actions
    • Cloud/favorite/试听(trial)/unavailable UI state
  • Link local/downloaded songs with remote ones
    • Lyrics and cover matching
  • On-boarding
  • Show current audio qualities
• Player
  • Continue the work of moving Player to VM
  • Handle fetch error
• Search
  • Hint
• Mine
  • Optimize dragonballs
  • Add shadow for profile background
  • Top crop profile background
  • Fix top margin of user profile
• Arch
  • Use Channel to manage Toast-s
  • Sync user data with WorkManager
  • More caching when RemoteMediator becomes non-experimental
    • Playlist, lyrics ...
• Settings
  • About
  • Link of APK of latest NCM
• Login
  • UI
• Share
• Network: More elegant
  • My own CookieJar implementation
  • Custom param annotation
  • Consider removing the NetworkDataSource wrapper
  • Fully deprecate NCMB
• The UI is generally not interactive enough
• Rearrange UI for landscape like NCM
• Download: advanced
• Login: SMS captcha login
• Firebase Crashlytics
• Compose: Write non-NCM screens in Compose
• Qualification: Add quiz activity/app based on JetSurvey

Important non-to-dos

• Search Tabs other than the default, search pagination
• Custom default audio quality (320 kbps is preferred when making requests)
• Support 32-bit systems or ones with android versions lower than 6.0 Marshmallow (API level 23)
• Advanced cover disk
• Add 底部导航自定义
  • Since it loses the official support

Libraries used

• Foundation
  • AppCompat
  • Android KTX
  • Test (TODO)
• Architecture
  • Data Binding
  • Lifecycles
  • Navigation
  • Paging
  • Room
  • ViewModel
  • WorkManager (TODO)
  • Data store & SP
• UI
  • Animations & Transitions
  • Fragment
  • Layout
• Behavior
  • Notifications
  • Media 3
• Third party and miscellaneous libraries
  • javax.crypto
  • Retrofit
  • Glide
  • Kotlin Coroutines
  • Moshi
  • PersistentCookieJar

Utilities used

• jadx-gui

• HTTPCanary

• Various online crypto tools

References

• Countless NCM app/service repos, including a well-known repo that has recently been shut down
• Media3 references:
  • uamp-media3
  • horologist/media
  • socialite

Misc.

Misc.

- Initially, I named it as 'NaCl'. Letters extracted from that of the official NCE app, it indicated that this third-party variant would be a lite alternative to the official one, due to technical skill limitations and omission of useless features. However, I found that Salt Music, another existing well-designed music app had a similar name. Now my app has been renamed to MinusOne Cloud Music, matching both of the '-1' slogan and the name format of NCM.

- Security and cryptography. We do use the very basic of NDK, which is apparently redundant in non-toy apps but worth for learning purposes.