Wavelet public beta

One player for everything you listen to.

Wavelet plays podcasts and audiobooks in one small app. Shows come in from their public feeds, the same way any podcast app gets them. Books come in as your own files. Downloads stay until you delete them, your place is always kept, and nothing is tailored to you.

It's in public beta on Android and going officially live soon. The podcasts and the audiobooks both work today. What's still rough is listed below.

See where it stands Android · free during the beta · no sign-up link here yet

What it does

Everything below works in the beta today. Anything unfinished is in the table further down.

Two libraries, one player

Podcasts and audiobooks stay on separate shelves. One is episodic and disposable, the other is nine hours of your life. The player underneath is the same, so speed, skip lengths and the sleep timer behave the same everywhere.

Feeds and files, not a store

Paste a show's feed link, or bring your subscriptions over from another app as an OPML file. Add audiobook files (M4B, MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, OGG or WAV), and several files can become one book. If you'd rather search, there's a plain search box and Apple's public top-podcasts list. Nothing is ranked or pushed at you.

Downloads that stay

Download an episode and it lives on your device until you delete it. Stream the ones you don't need to keep. Your books never leave your storage at all. Nothing quietly evicts the thing you saved for the flight.

Built for the long haul

Chapters for audiobooks, read from the markers inside the file, or one per file. Bookmarks with notes. A sleep timer that can stop at the end of the chapter or the episode instead of mid-sentence. Your place kept per episode and per book, indefinitely.

In the car, on the lock screen

Background playback with lock-screen and notification controls, and Android Auto. Optional alerts when a show you follow posts a new episode, and nothing else.

Sync only if you want it

Keep your place in step through your own Google Drive, where Wavelet only sees the folder you pick, or through your own Hamlet server. Or export everything to a single backup file (JSON). There's no account with us, and no Wavelet server in the middle.

Where it stands

The honest state of the build, updated as things land.

PieceStatusNotes
Podcasts Works RSS subscriptions, OPML import and export, search, streaming or downloading, new-episode alerts, speed per show.
Audiobooks Works Your own files, embedded M4B chapters, multi-file books, bookmarks with notes, cover and metadata lookup when you ask for it.
Playback Works Background audio, lock-screen controls, Android Auto, speed, adjustable skip lengths, sleep timer.
Sync Works Optional, through your own Google Drive or your own Hamlet server. JSON export for everything else.
Download rules Partial Downloading and deleting work. Automatic clean-up rules and storage limits don't exist yet.
Other clouds Planned Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud and Proton Drive show in settings as "coming soon". They don't connect to anything yet.
.aax (Audible) Not supported Audible locks its files with copy protection (DRM), so only Audible's app can play them. Wavelet plays files you actually own.

Roadmap

Listed in order, with no dates. Each step starts once the one before it is solid.

Open a milestone for the details.

The public beta becomes a proper release on Android, in the Play Store, with the pricing we've already described: pay a little once, or watch one untargeted ad once.

What "done" looks like A week of commuting, a nine-hour book in forty scattered sessions, and not once a reason to open your old app.

Automatic clean-up for played episodes and a ceiling on storage, so your phone doesn't fill up with shows you finished last spring.

What "done" looks like Rules you set once, and never a download deleted that you didn't agree to.

Like the rest of the Letworks apps, Wavelet is built with Flutter, and the iOS version already has CarPlay wired in. It ships once Android is finished.

What "done" looks like Wavelet moves platforms together with Leaflet, so the family arrives on iOS as a set rather than one app at a time.

Questions

Wasn't this supposed to be two apps?
It was. A podcast app and an audiobook app were planned separately. Then it was obvious they shared about ninety percent of a player: speed, chapters, sleep timer, downloads, positions. Two front doors on the same room is one app, so they merged into Wavelet.
Really, no recommendations?
Nothing personal. There's no "because you listened to", no nudges about shows you don't follow, and no profile to base them on. The search screen does show Apple's public top-podcasts chart, the same list for everyone in your country, because an empty search box isn't much help. If Wavelet ever starts guessing what you want, that's a bug report.
Where do my subscriptions, episodes and books live?
On your device. Feeds come straight from their publishers, and books are read from your own storage. There's no Wavelet server in the middle seeing what you listen to. If you turn on sync, it goes to your own Drive or your own Hamlet server.
Will it play my Audible books?
Not in their .aax form. Those are copy-protected (DRM), and Wavelet won't pretend otherwise. It plays DRM-free files: purchases from stores like Libro.fm or Downpour, rips of your own CDs, anything else you actually own.
Can I try it now?
Yes. Wavelet is in public beta on Android, and it's free while the beta runs. After launch it's pay a little once, or watch one untargeted ad once. Never a subscription. If what you want to get through has pages instead of a narrator, Leaflet is in beta too.