# Convx: a Liquid Glass Android music player that streams from YouTube Music

> Convx is a GPL-3.0 Kotlin app built on Jetpack Compose and Media3 ExoPlayer, forked from vivi-music. It solves one narrow problem well: making YouTube Music playback on Android look and feel like an iOS app, without ads and without telemetry.

**cosmictaserdev-creator/Convx** — Convx is a free, open-source Android music player that streams from YouTube Music — reimagined with an iOS-inspired "Liquid Glass" interface. Every surface uses real backdrop blur and refraction, paired with bouncy, spring-based animations for a smooth, premium feel. 

- Repository: https://github.com/cosmictaserdev-creator/Convx
- Website: https://cosmictaser.de5.net
- Stars: 538 · Forks: 29
- Language: Kotlin
- License: GPL-3.0
- Published: 2026-09-17 · Updated: 2026-09-17 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/cosmictaserdev-creator-convx

## The problem Convx targets: a YouTube Music client that does not look like Material

Most Android music players built on Media3 or ExoPlayer reuse stock Material components. Convx explicitly rejects that: the README describes the UI as "a custom Liquid Glass design system, frosted, refractive surfaces, iOS-style bouncy scrolling, and progressive blur chrome, instead of stock Material widgets." The audience is therefore narrow and specific. It is for Android users who already listen through YouTube Music and want a client whose chrome actually blurs the content behind it, and for Kotlin developers who want to read a Compose codebase that implements backdrop sampling and spring-based motion rather than reading another Material 3 sample. It is not a general-purpose local music player, and it is not a library manager for files you already own. The README frames the feature set around streaming: "ad-free streaming and background playback with full notification/lock-screen controls," offline caching, and a built-in equalizer. The project started as a fork of vivi-music, which the README states directly and which matters when you evaluate the code: some module names in the repository root, such as vivimusiccanvas, still carry the upstream name.

## How the Liquid Glass surfaces and the playback stack fit together

The architecture is two layers that meet at the player state. Playback sits on Media3 ExoPlayer, and the UI is Jetpack Compose. The README states that the frosted chrome "actually samples and refracts the content behind it, not a flat translucent color," which is the distinction that separates a real backdrop blur from a semi-transparent rectangle: the composable has to read what is rendered underneath it at draw time. Motion is handled separately, described as "bouncy rubber-band overscroll, blurred page transitions, springy nav puck," so the feel comes from animation specs rather than from the blur itself. Color is derived from the current track, via "Material You: adaptive colors pulled from the currently playing artwork." The repository root shows how the surrounding features are split: innertube for the YouTube Music side, listen-together-server for shared playback, and separate top-level directories for lyrics providers (betterlyrics, lrclib, musixmatchlyrics, paxsenixlyrics, youlyplus), scrobbling (lastfm), and other sources (jiosaavn, kugou, spotify, shazamkit). That layout tells you the integration surface is broad, and each provider directory is a place where an upstream API change can break a feature. The README does not document retry or fallback behavior when a provider fails.

## Installing Convx 1.5.2 and playing the first track

Convx ships as an Android APK from GitHub releases, not through a store. The README points at the v1.5.2 release tag and states that it "Works on Android 8.0+." There is no documented package-manager install, so the practical path is to download the release artifact for the version you want and sideload it. The repository also publishes nightly builds, with nightly-r52 dated 2026-08-20, alongside the stable v1.5.2 and v1.5.1 tags. If you would rather build from source, the Gradle wrapper is present at the repository root.

## Where Convx is the wrong tool

Three limits are visible from the README alone. First, platform: the download section says Android 8.0+ and nothing else. There is no iOS build, no desktop build, and no web player, despite the iOS-inspired design language. People searching for Convx on iOS will not find a version here. Second, the app depends on YouTube Music as its catalog. If that access changes, the core feature changes with it, and the README offers no statement about fallback sources for the main library. Third, the interface has a cost that the README does not quantify: real backdrop blur means continuously sampling and compositing what is behind each glass surface. The project does not publish frame-time or battery figures, so anyone on a low-end device should treat the visual approach as an assumption to test rather than a guarantee. That is a design trade-off, not a defect, but it is the one a buyer should weigh first. Finally, the in-app updater is documented as checking for updates and showing changelogs; the README does not document rollback, so moving back to v1.5.1 after a bad v1.5.2 install is not a described operation.

## Convx compared with a plain ExoPlayer app

The honest alternative is not another YouTube Music client but the ordinary approach: a Media3 ExoPlayer app with Material 3 components. The difference is where the effort goes. A stock Material player inherits its surfaces, motion and theming from the platform, so it looks consistent with the rest of the device and costs almost nothing to maintain as Material evolves. Convx spends that effort on a custom design system: every frosted panel, the nav puck and the page transitions are project code that has to keep working across Compose and Android releases. In exchange you get a look that no Material theme produces, plus the iOS-style overscroll behavior. The same trade-off applies to features. A basic ExoPlayer app plays what you give it; Convx carries an innertube integration, multiple lyrics providers, Discord Rich Presence, Last.fm scrobbling and a Listen Together server. Each is useful, and each is another upstream that can change without warning. If you want the smallest possible surface that plays audio, Convx is the wrong shape. If you want the interface, the extra integrations are the price.

## Maintenance, licence and what a fork costs you

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-08-20, which is recent enough that the project is being worked on rather than parked. The release cadence supports that reading: v1.5.1 on 2026-08-11, v1.5.2 on 2026-08-15, and nightly-r52 on 2026-08-20. The presence of renovate.json suggests dependency updates are automated, and crowdin.yml indicates translations are managed through Crowdin, so localisation changes arrive from outside the main branch. The licence is GPL-3.0. For anyone forking Convx or shipping a modified build, that is the practical constraint to understand before writing code: GPL-3.0 is a copyleft licence, and the repository's own history shows what that means in practice, since Convx itself is a fork of vivi-music and carries that lineage in its module names. What the copyleft requires of your distribution is a legal question, not one this article can settle, so read LICENSE and SECURITY.md in the repository and get your own advice if you plan to redistribute. On upgrade cost: the in-app updater removes the manual download step, but the README does not describe a downgrade path, so keep the APK you installed if you care about being able to go back.

## Conclusion

Adopt Convx if you want a YouTube Music front end on Android with a Compose-built Liquid Glass interface, synced lyrics and no telemetry, and you are comfortable installing a signed APK from GitHub releases rather than a store listing. Do not adopt it if you need iOS, desktop or a self-hosted server: the README targets Android 8.0+ only, and the Listen Together server is a component of the app, not a standalone service you deploy for other clients. Before installing, verify that the release you pick matches the tag you intend (v1.5.2, v1.5.1, or the nightly-r52 build), and check the changelog.json entry for that tag, because the README documents an in-app updater but does not document rollback to an earlier release.

## FAQ

### What is convex in simple terms?

This is not a question the Convx repository answers. Convx is an Android music player that streams from YouTube Music, and the README does not describe convex geometry or the Convex backend platform.

### What is convex and concave?

The Convx README does not cover convex or concave shapes. The project is a Kotlin music player built with Jetpack Compose on a Media3 ExoPlayer core, and its documentation is limited to that app.

### What does convex look like?

The Convx documentation does not describe convex shapes. What it does describe is a Liquid Glass interface with real backdrop blur and iOS-style motion, which is a different subject from the search term.

### What is an example of convex?

The Convx material contains no example of a convex shape. The README's own examples are screenshots of the player, library, lyrics and settings screens.

## Sources

- [cosmictaserdev-creator/Convx on GitHub](https://github.com/cosmictaserdev-creator/Convx)
- [License: GPL-3.0](https://github.com/cosmictaserdev-creator/Convx/blob/main/LICENSE)
- [Project website](https://cosmictaser.de5.net)
- [README](https://github.com/cosmictaserdev-creator/Convx/blob/main/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/cosmictaserdev-creator/Convx/releases)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/cosmictaserdev-creator-convx