BluAS, album shuffle controller for BluOS

Introduction
BluAS stands for BluOS Album Shuffle and is an Android app controller that allows you to control your BluOS player at home. Its main function is to select and play complete albums randomly and repeatly selected from your local network.

The Autoplay feature by BluAS is an unique way to randomly play music from your library. You don't have to create playlists in advance, and that way you can completely surprise yourself! BluAS is particularly interesting for users with (very) large music collections.

The official BluOS Controller mobile app doesn't offer such an "album shuffle" function, while users with large music collections have wanted this for a long time (see here). The BluAS Android app uses the publicly available API, which you can find here. The initial implementation was developed as a Python script and a more interactive webpage version, both are still available upon request.

How to install
You can download the latest version of the app (v0.99c) from my download page and install it on your Android device (Android 8+).

To communicate with your BluOS player (via WiFi), a number of technical parameters must match your local situation (via the app's technical settings). These technical parameters are set when BluAS starts (when these values are still empty). However, you can also set them manually:

  • IP address of your BluOS player within your local network (Check Diagnostic info of your Controller app)
  • Portno to which the API of your BluOS-player listens to (default 11000)
  • Service name of your music library on your NAS (default LocalMusic)
Two extra parameters for the rendering of album covers are also needed: a portno and library name. To find them, you must extract these parameters from the redirected url from this url: http://192.168.0.111:11000/Artwork?service=LocalMusic

PhD Software offers a free version and a one-time paid license version for personal and non-commercial use (€ 45). The free version limits the number of artists (max. 250), the number of artists per genre (max. 25) and the number of albums per artist (max. 5). Furthermore, autoplay and track mode are not supported.

How it works
First, an artist is randomly selected, so that every artist on your NAS has an equal chance. Second, an album is randomly selected and played. BluAS uses an own index containing all your available artists and its genre. This allows a quick selection of the albums!

To control album playback (and visualize album playback durations with progress bars), BluAS does not allow simultaneous control of other controllers (such as the BluOS controller app). When BluAS takes control by selecting and playing an album, the status becomes set by BluAS.

If BluAS detects another app being used, it returns to an unset status, the album progress bar disappear, any autoplay will not continue, and... the Artist button turns to red.

Button layout overview
BluAS Artist button
Artist		 BluAS Shuffle button
Shuffle		 BluAS Skip button
Skip		 BluAS Play button
Play		 BluAS Volume up button
Vol. up
BluAS Album button
Album		 BluAS Repeat button
Repeat		 BluAS Previous button
Back		 BluAS Info button
Info		 BluAS Volume dw button
Vol. dw
Long-press functions
  • Artist button: create index for BluAS from BluOS
  • Album button: play current album (in track mode)*
  • Info button: show track list of current album
  • Vol. up button: set current artist as filter
  • Vol. dw button: share log data for analysis*
*not supported by free version

How to use
When you start the player for the first time and have set the correct technical parameters (by BluAS or manually), you can check the status of your BluOS device with the Info button. If everything looks allright, you can create your BluAS index: long-press the Artist button, click ok and wait for BluAS to finish creating the index (takes an average of 15 seconds per 1000 artists).

Clicking the Artist button randomly selects a new artist, and clicking the Album button randomly selects another album by the previously selected artist. Long-pressing the Info button displays the tracklist of the album currently playing on BluAS (not enable if the app status is unset).

Additionally, the combination of the Shuffle button and Repeat button determines the autoplay mode, when BluAS continues with playing another album after an album has finished playing.

  • Shuffle only, player will play random album of a random artist
  • Shuffle+Repeat, player will play random album of the current artist
  • Repeat only, player will replay current album of the current artist
The Shuffle and Repeat buttons are BluAS buttons and functions. They operate independently of BluOS! To avoid confusion, the BluOS shuffle and repeat functions are disabled when starting BluAS. To remind you that BluAS is autoplaying, there will be a small BluAS icon visible in your status bar.

The Autoplay mode requires the app to remain active in the background. It starts a so-called foreground activity (in the status bar) and requires unrestricted battery usage for the app (Android 12+).

Although BluAS is an album controller, it offers with the Track mode the feature to autoplay just one track from a selected album, chosen at random, of course. If a track from the current album appeals to you, you can stop the Track mode and play the entire album by long-pressing the Album button.

The Autoplay feature is an unique way to randomly play music from your library. There is no need to create playlists in advance, as this takes away the element of surprise!

Filters
To refine the random selection of albums, two filters are available.

In the first field (top left), you can select a genre. You can also exclude a genre by prefixing it with a minus character. By entering any value, a popup appears with the avaliable genres and its number of artists (if the Filter info setting is enabled). By entering an empty value (or clearing the previous value), all genres will be reselected.

In the second field (to the right of the first field), you can select an artist from whom you want to play random albums. You can search by parts of a genre or artist name. But to select specific artist names, you may prefix (or postfix) your search text with a dot. Example: use '.Yes' to find artist Yes or 'Yes' to find f.i. 'Bright Eyes'. By entering any value, an optional popup appears with the available albums of the artist.

Nice to know
The index created by and within BluAS is based on BluOS indexing results. If you've added a new artist, be sure to reindex your music library using the BluOS app first. It's also important to note that BluAS uses an artist-centric approach. While an artist can belong to multiple genres, BluAS can only select them based on one genre.

BluAS can also display the album's year, if it's included in the album's file path on your network folder.

BluAS plays a randomly selected album by default without any confirmation, which can be changed in the settings. The Autoplay mode and Track mode can also be enabled through the settings. You can use the app in light or dark mode through the settings (and some other features).

BluOS compatibility
The app is at least compatible with BluOS firmware version 4.10.13 (July 2025). Since there is no way to revert to previous BluOS firmware versions, there is a small risk that upgrades may cause compatibility issues. Therefore, PhD Software greatly appreciates all comments and feedback when running BluAS on other BluOS versions.

License, custom version or support?
For a license, custom version, special requests or questions, please send an email to info@phdsoftware.nl.

BluAS screen examples

Example of BluAS app, play album Example of BluAS app, create index Example of BluAS app, select another artist Example of BluAS app, settings

PhD Software - © 2026
Last update