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A decentralized music tracking and discovery platform built on AT Protocol 🎵 rocksky.app
spotify atproto lastfm musicbrainz scrobbling listenbrainz
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123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128---title: "Native Android scrobbling"description: "Record plays from other music apps with Rocksky's built-in Android scrobbler."icon: "android"---
The Rocksky Android app can scrobble music from other apps on your phone.Sign in, grant notification access, and listen normally. You do not need tocreate an API key or configure a separate scrobbler.
Rocksky reads the title, artist, and available album information from Androidmedia sessions. Players such as Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, YouTube Music, andApple Music can provide this information. Detection depends on the metadataeach player shares with Android; a title and artist are required.
<Card title="Install Rocksky from Google Play" icon="google-play" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.rocksky"> Get the Android app and start scrobbling from your music players.</Card>
## Set up scrobbling
<Steps> <Step title="Sign in to Rocksky"> Install the [Rocksky Android app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.rocksky) and sign in to the account where you want to save your listens. </Step> <Step title="Open the scrobbling settings"> Go to **Profile > Scrobbling**. Make sure **Scrobble other apps** is on. Scrobbling and newly detected players are enabled by default. </Step> <Step title="Allow notification access"> Go to **Profile > Scrobbling > Manage Notification access** and give Rocksky permission to read notifications in Android's settings. Return to Rocksky when you finish.
Android may also ask permission to show notifications. That permission controls Rocksky's ongoing service notification; you still need to grant **notification access** so Rocksky can detect music from other apps. </Step> <Step title="Check your music apps"> Under **Apps to scrobble**, leave the players you want to track switched on. Other media players appear automatically when detected. Turn a player off to stop collecting new listens from it. </Step> <Step title="Play a track"> Start music in an enabled player. The scrobbling screen should show **Listening in the background** and a **DETECTED NOW** card with the track. After it qualifies, the card changes to **LISTEN SAVED**. </Step></Steps>
<Note> This feature requires a native Android build of Rocksky. It is not available in Expo Go or on iOS. Rocksky's own player is excluded from this listener because it already has its own scrobbling support.</Note>
## Choose when a track counts
In **When to scrobble**, the default **Listening time** mode saves a play after50% of the track or 4 minutes of actual listening, whichever comes first.Tracks with a known duration below 30 seconds are skipped. Pauses, buffering,and seeking forward do not add listening time. If the duration is unavailable,Rocksky uses the configured time in seconds.
You can change **Maximum listening time (seconds)**, **Track percentage**, and**Minimum track length (seconds)**, then tap **Save timing**. Tap**Restore default timing** to reset these settings.
Choose **Track position** to save when playback reaches a particular positioninstead. Seeking to that position can qualify the play. A track shorter thanthe selected position cannot qualify.
## Scrobble recognized music
Turn on **Music recognition** and enable the recognition app under**Apps to scrobble**. Rocksky reads supported recognition-result notifications;these results do not have a playback position.
| Source | When Rocksky saves the result || --- | --- || Shazam / Auto Shazam and Audile | Immediately after a supported result notification appears || Supported legacy Pixel Now Playing, Pixel Ambient Services, and Ambient Music Mod notifications | After 15 seconds, unless the notification disappears first |
Repeated recognitions of the same track are suppressed for five minutes.Album information is included when the recognition app supplies it.
Newer Pixel Now Playing versions may hide recognition data. If the notificationdoes not expose a supported title and artist, Rocksky cannot record it.
## Background listening and offline uploads
The native listener can continue with the screen off and without keeping theRocksky screen open. If your phone restricts background activity, tap**Background & battery settings** and allow unrestricted battery usage forRocksky. Android force-stop suspends detection until you reopen the app.
Qualifying listens are saved on your device before upload. **Offline queue**shows how many are waiting, whether any need a retry, and the last upload time.Uploads resume automatically when you have a connection and scrobbling isenabled, even with the app closed. Queued listens keep their original listeningtimestamps.
**LISTEN SAVED** means the listen has been saved locally; it may still be waitingto upload. Check your Rocksky profile after the queue drains to see your plays.
Turning off **Scrobble other apps** pauses both collection and uploads withoutdeleting queued listens. Turning off an individual player stops new collectionfrom that player. Saved listens stay tied to the account that collected them;signing in to another account does not upload them to that account.
## Troubleshooting
- **No track appears:** Check that you are signed in, notification access is enabled, and the player is on under **Apps to scrobble**. Start playback again. The player must provide both a title and an artist.- **Tracking stops with the screen off:** Allow unrestricted battery usage and reopen Rocksky if you force-stopped it.- **Listens stay queued:** Check your connection and turn on **Scrobble other apps**. Sign in again if your session has expired, using the account that collected the listens. Tap **Retry saved listens** to retry failed uploads.- **A play appears twice:** Disable overlapping scrobbling for the same player in other integrations, such as [Pano Scrobbler](/integrations/pano-scrobbler) or a separate Spotify connection.
If you prefer a separate Android scrobbler, see the[Pano Scrobbler setup guide](/integrations/pano-scrobbler).