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Opus is a new open source lossy-format that replaces Vorbis and the outperforms all the other proprietary alternatives to it. However, what plays Opus on Android? Thus far the only thing I've found is Firefox! How come my browser can play Opus -- and none of my music players?

I even wrote Alex, the developer of PowerAmp he said,

something like that is planned - you can check for details here: http://forum.powerampapp.com/index.php?/topic/1794-poweramp-todo-listfeatures-in-progress/

And, it says nothing of Opus support in the future?

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  • "mx player" is the answer.. ^_^
    – user183054
    Aug 16, 2016 at 8:45

9 Answers 9

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VLC for Android is reported to support opus format. (src)

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    I regularly use VLC on a Android Nexus 5 device to playback opus and it does its job very well. It is quite stable, too - even if it is still called beta.
    – maxschlepzig
    Jul 26, 2014 at 11:00
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    it indeed plays opus files, but I can't believe it doesn't have a shuffle option...
    – knocte
    Nov 13, 2016 at 13:36
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    Note that the app is not aware of privacy settings. If you have music in your Private storage, even if it's currently unlocked, VLC won't see it.
    – code_dredd
    Apr 16, 2017 at 21:27
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According to the Supported Media Formats page Opus is supported natively since Android 5.0, but only in the Matroska (.mkv) container. The Xiph.org wiki and IETF draft state that the mime-type for Ogg Opus files is audio/ogg. To test I encoded a Flac file with opusenc and changed the extension to .ogg before transferring the file to the device, which made it appear and play in Google Play Music, but without metadata like tags and cover art, just the filename.

Edit 2016-05-20: I just encoded¹ a few test files directly to .ogg again and they play fine in Google Play Music². The basic tag fields I use are detected, embedded album art as well as AlbumArt.jpg files work too.

Edit 2016-10-04: I found information about a draft to encapsulate flac-in-mp4 (probably related to Mozilla's efforts to support FLAC in Firefox) as well as opus-in-mp4. I never thought that this would be possible or considered to be implemented, but it appears that some people in the community are working to bring Opus and FLAC to MP4.

  1. Encoding details: 44.1kHz Flac source, opusenc/libopus 1.1.2 from Ubuntu 16.04, 112 kbps bitrate, file transfer via Syncthing (not required, that's just what I use currently).
  2. Google Play Music Version 6.8.2817A.2862803. Device: Nexus 5 with CyanogenMod 13.0-20160514-Nightly based on Android 6.0.1.
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    I've found on Android 6 that .opus files are not picked up in the library scans, but simply rename the same file .ogg and it works fine; is picked up, metadata parsed and plays.
    – artfulrobot
    Dec 20, 2016 at 23:38
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    Yes, support has been added in Android 6 (marshmallow). You can see it here: android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/av/+/… (compare with Android 5 here: android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/av/+/…). Sadly they seem to have forgotten to add support in the MediaScanner for the .opus file extension. As you discovered, a workaround is simply to rename them to .ogg.
    – ayke
    Jun 27, 2017 at 23:24
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    As a side note: Google Play Music CAN play opus files correctly when renamed to .opus.ogg, but it seems that .opus.ogg (or .opus) files can't be uploaded to your Play Music library, as Google Music Manager app (or chrome extension) does not recognize it as a good format. In the "supported uploads formats help page" (developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html), Google says .OGG files are supported. But being OGG a container format, it can embed either an Opus or a Vorbis audio stream, and Google does not tell which of those is actually supported. Maybe only Vorbis is...
    – red-o-alf
    Feb 15, 2019 at 20:12
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I've found GoneMAD Music Player and Neutron Music Player support playback of Opus.

Update: If gapless playback is an important feature to you try XMMS2 or Rockbox.
Both are still in the development stages as far as Android is concerned but they are both worthy of a mention. XMMS2 is a music player server, so you will also need to download a controller to use it.
Rockbox isn't available via the Play store and it can be a bit tricky to setup so you will have to do your own homework on this one.

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    is any of those players open source?
    – knocte
    Nov 13, 2016 at 13:37
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AIMP play opus on Android.....

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  • Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts, Vadim! Though that might be an answer to the question, link-only answers are discouraged on all SE sites. Mind to include some additional details?
    – Izzy ♦
    Oct 3, 2014 at 15:29
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    Guys, look at the question. He needs something that plays the format, this answer says this app plays the format. There is no other "essential part" of the answer. If you guys have a problem with the question that's a different matter.
    – Matthew Read
    Nov 15, 2014 at 20:04
  • is it open source?
    – knocte
    Nov 13, 2016 at 13:37
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It's an old question but it's hard not to mention Foobar2000 (that has finally been ported to mobile) for Opus support.

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Freeamp supports Opus decoding as well from build 119 using the BASS for Android library.

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I can confirm that Stellio Music Player and AIMP is able to reproduce (on an Acer Iconia B1-710 Tablet with Android 4.1.2, kernel 3.4.0) a 512kbps 48000Hz audio file with .opus extension encoded with opusenc (included in opus-tools) in Ubuntu 16.10 Terminal Emulator (from a FLAC). Excellent and cristal clear sound (with a proper audio output device). Or you can simply use VLC.

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Rocket Player plays opus

Version 3.3.0
NEW: Default material blue theme
**NEW: Opus support**
NEW: 13 new themes
NEW: Theme switcher
NEW: Artist pictures for cloud subscribers
NEW: Show art in the song tab
NEW: Better memory management
NEW: Feature to block car Bluetooth stereos from auto starting music playback
NEW: Live List support for playlist shortcuts
NEW: Folder browser now supports the back button
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Droidsound-E (https://github.com/droidmjt/Droidsound/blob/master/README.md) is a player focused on retro games, consoles, and computer systems. I found that it has support for Opus files.

However, it may not be available on Google Play.

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