Hive Pocket Media Player

Music

Not listening.

Start listening when the app opensStarts on its own next time, no tap needed. Only the microphone can do this.

Hears music in the room — a speaker, a radio, another app. Nothing is recorded.

Saved links

None saved.

Look

One tap sets everything below. Storm flashes the screen.

Colours

On the stage

The star on the player is this same switch.

Equalizer

Style

Seven ways to draw the same sound. More knobs in Advanced.

Height 50%

Half the screen to start with. The pops and the lightning still get all of it — this is the bars only.

Effects

Bursts

What pops on the beat, and under your finger. Fairy is a floating light with a tail. Lightning flashes the screen — skip it if flashing bothers you.

Size

Sensitivity

Easy for music in the room. Strict for music playing here.

Reacts to

Bass is the drum. Let mids and highs in and voices and cymbals pop too.

Background

Always drifting, behind the pops. Storm and lightning flash.

Your finger

What your finger draws. Two fingers send lights floating off — two fingers again calls them back.

Your finger throws

Your finger can throw something different from the music. Hearts under your finger, fireworks on the beat.

Screen

Player

Performance

Advanced

Extra knobs. A Look never changes these, and nothing here starts switched on. Anything you move is marked, and a label says when a knob only does something in certain styles.

Equalizer

Effects

Help

Seven quick steps. It ran once by itself the first time.

Feature reminders Show me one now and thenOne line, once a day at most, never the same one twice. They stop on their own when there is nothing left to say.

How it works

Microphone — in this menu. It draws whatever the phone can hear, which is the only way to see music this app cannot read — YouTube, Spotify, another phone across the room, a radio. Play it out loud and the visuals follow it.
Folder button — pick music from this phone. Chrome remembers the folder and brings it back with one tap next time. Other browsers ask again each time, because they cannot remember one.
Link button — paste a link that points straight at a music file. Saved links come back every time.
Tap the visuals for full screen. Tap again to come back.
Drag a finger across them and they paint, in whatever colours are set. Holding still works too. It needs no music at all.
Two fingers on the visuals send a pair of lights floating off, each trailing a long tail. Touch once — you do not have to hold. They keep going until you press two fingers again, which calls them back. While they are out, the beat throws none of its own.
Star button — effects on or off. Dragging, holding or two fingers on the stage turn them back on. A plain tap does not — that is still full screen.
Previous goes back a track, or starts this one again if you are past the first few seconds.
Look — one tap sets the equalizer, the pops, the colours, the background and the sensitivity together. Move any of them yourself and it says Custom. Surprise me rolls a new one, and never picks the two that flash — those are yours to choose by name.
Reacts to — which parts of the sound make things pop. Bass is the drum. Mids are voices and guitars, and land mid-screen. Highs are cymbals, near the top.
Sensitivity — a room blurs the sharp edges a file keeps, so Easy is for the microphone and Strict is for music playing here.
Size makes every pop bigger. On Battery saver the biggest ones get trimmed.
Lightning flashes the screen. It is in the Bursts list and the finger setting, and Random and Surprise me never choose it for you.
Performance — Automatic watches the frame rate and eases off if the phone is struggling. The menu says which one is running and why, so it never happens quietly.
Player — Minimized keeps the buttons and hides the list. Hidden leaves just the visuals and this menu, and stops anything playing.
The microphone keeps the screen awake while it listens, so a phone propped up does not go dark. It costs about 12% of a battery an hour, screen and all.
Report a problem — in this menu. Write what happened and press Send to HIVE (or Send by email). Send to HIVE sends it at once; by email, your mail app opens with it filled in. Your song names are never included, and you can read exactly what is attached first.
It all works with no internet, every time you open it.
Browsers — everything works in Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Only remembering a music folder needs Chrome. Safari also wants a tap before it will open a microphone, so "start listening when the app opens" may not start it there on its own.
If the folder keeps asking — Chrome sometimes offers Allow on every visit, and that is the one meant to stick. Some phones ask every time anyway, and nothing in this app can change that.
Saved links — YouTube links saved by an old version are kept but cannot play, because their sound comes from another site. Play it out loud and press Listen instead. Forget all saved links removes them.

Report a problem

What happened?

Kept on this phone as you type.

Send to HIVE sends it straight away (up to 1,000 characters). Email sends nothing until you press send in your mail app. Copy is for a phone with no mail app.

Exactly what gets attached

Here it is in full. Your song names, your saved links and what is playing are not in it.

—

Start over

Puts every setting back to how it arrived. Your music, your saved links and the folder you picked are not touched.

About

Hive Pocket Media Player
…because you're as awesome as the music!
Everything happens on this phone. Your music never goes anywhere, and it all works with no internet. Privacy.

HIVE POCKET

Welcome

Settings

Equalizer

Effects