# play:Sub Music Streamer — user reviews > 271 indexed App Store user reviews of play by Michael Hansen, rated 4.50/5 from 421 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/playsub-music-streamer/id955329386/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/playsub-music-streamer/id955329386.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 316 · 4★ 46 · 3★ 23 · 2★ 15 · 1★ 21 ## What do users think of play? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Smooth playback - 👍 Customizable UI - 🔒 No tracking - 🎨 Detailed song/album info - 💡 Useful features (EQ, crossfade, etc.) **Cons** - 🐛 Crashes and stability issues - 🔋 Battery drain - 🤔 Confusing navigation/UI - ⚠️ Buggy CarPlay integration **Commonly reported bugs** - Songs not playing properly - Library desyncing issues - Freezing during database sync - Inconsistent behavior when switching networks **Most requested features** - Repeat single track option - Automatic theme switching - Batch download/caching - Apple Watch support - Improved CarPlay experience ## Newest reviews (18 of 271) ### 2/5 — Terrible UX and UI *2026-05-20, version 2026.4.22* As the title says. For this reason it’s clunky. But this app was one that worked compared to many. Too bad i couldn’t try it first. ### 3/5 — Bad UX *2026-05-04, version 2026.4.22* Honestly, you can tell that UX is not the strong point with this application. For example, if you want to change your queue “play next” does what you expect, but “add to queue” doesn’t add the song right after that, instead it goes to the very bottom of the long randomly generated queue of shuffle. And if you want to remove a song from the queue then you have to open the queue, click the pencil to edit, click the minus next to the song, then confirm delete. ### 5/5 — Only fully functional navidrome client for iOS *2026-03-23, version 2026.1.22* I have tried every available navidrome client for iOS and this is the only one that could reliably download my 50k song library transcoded using server-defined codecs. ### 2/5 — Won’t Stay Up to Date *2026-03-13, version 2026.1.22* I love the app. Love the options and customization. Can’t recommend it though bc it won’t remove albums that have been removed from the underlying database. ### 3/5 — Lots of niche issues. *2026-03-10, version 2026.1.22* Playback is still more stable than modern apps such as Arpeggi or Narjo, but it’s quite buggy in iOS 26: - UI becoming unresponsive sometimes - random playing an album or a list would always skip first track - etc. ### 4/5 — Great subsonic client *2026-02-24, version 2026.1.22* This was worth every penny. The only client to allow you to download your whole collection, efficient transcoding, automatic radio of songs, playlist management and you can even adjust the server from the app. However a gesture I struggled often with is proper handling of multi genres. Even with subsonic managing it. For example a song that is „Pop“ „Rock“ would normally show up in „Pop“ and „Rock“ but here the separator „;“ is taken literally and thus creates the genre „Pop; Rock“. Other than that I am throughly satisfied. ### 4/5 — Possibly the best music streamer on IOS *2026-02-13, version 2026.1.22* It does have some bugs, crashes and imperfections. But I am more than satisfied with this app, it offers most of the functionality of modern music apps. I am missing only a few things: 1. Live lyrics - where you see timed lyrics from .lrc files 2. Music suggestions. (not just random music) When you have a big library and you want to have 1 click option to just turn on music that will be perfectly shuffled. But I see limitations here since most of the time, needed metadata doesn’t exist. 3. Maybe a little simpler interface or some option to simplify it, I want to see a few clean big buttons and nothing else. ### 5/5 — New interface is great *2026-02-08* The new interface is great, it feels like a much better user experience now. Thank you for your work on this app. It’s changed the way I listen to music ### 5/5 — The best navidrome client *2026-02-05* A well worthy investment. I tested several clients, including sideloading some (outside apple store), and play:Sub is bar far the best. You have playlists, radio, offline download, equalizer, crossfade and more. Chromecast support works, but not for radio. The only thing I really miss is filtering songs by groupings the same way navidrome does. ### 5/5 — Great app *2026-02-01, version 2026.1.22* One complaint though. When I select all artists, it shows a lot of artists with 0 albums. Then if I click on those artists I can really do anything with them. I would prefer only showing the Album artists in this lists. Or at least having the ability to do that via a setting. ### 4/5 — Good but not perfect *2026-02-01* I would rate it 5 star but I really dislike some design choices, it seems to me the so was designed for the “Max” sizes iPhones as it becomes a bit cluttered on the now playing screen - I’d preferred every option above playback controls was instead hidden somewhere. One more issue as well - using the scroll bar to advance the music is unusable on iPhone 15 Pro, at the beginning of the song I always grab the edge and that takes you back to library. Very annoying as I often want to check what song is being played (by listening) so I advance until lyrics/beat etc. to check. I do that often with a new album or with OSTs when I don’t know the titles yet. For these reasons it’s 4⭐️ ### 3/5 — Car Play navigation is weak *2026-01-31, version 2026.1.22* While the iOS app is great, the experience while driving via the CarPlay interface STINKS! It is lacking the most basic of functionality such as being able to browse by genre (which the iOS app has). So, while driving, I’m stuck listening to a handful of random songs that play:Sub chooses, or having to pull over and browse by folder. Guess I’ll have to hope the devs improve the CarPlay interface or I’ll have to find an alternative ### 5/5 — Perfect *2026-01-30, version 2026.1.22* This is by far the BEST Subsonic client available. I have tried pretty much all of them and they all have major issues. Gapless playback works like a dream, the EQ is very good and works like a real EQ should, scrolling is smooth and the interface is beautiful and has a lot of options for configuration. There was a minor annoyance at the beginning where I did not like the resume point menu but the developer reached out to me and informed me how to disable in settings. This app works on all my devices and the old version is still available for my iPhone 6 which makes for a great iPod. 5.0 stars and well worth the $7 CAD. ### 3/5 — Gute Subsonic/Airsonic App *2026-01-25* Eigentlich ist diese App mein Favorit für Subsonic. Leider ist sie konsequent auf das Streamen der Musik ausgelegt. Das heißt der Server muss 24/7 online sein und man braucht ein großes Datenvolumen. Ich habe aber nur einen kleinen Datentarif mit 750 MB pro Monat. Also schalte ich den Server bei Bedarf an und lade die Musik auf das iPhone, dafür habe ich extra 512GB. Leider löscht die App die Musik nach einer gewissen Zeit automatisch. Dabei gibt es dann auch noch einen Bug der die Titel noch anzeigt obwohl sie offenbar schon gelöscht sind. Das habe ich zwar schon mehrfach dem Author mitgeteilt, denn es sollte nicht ein großes Problem sein das löschen der Musik optional durch einen Schalter zu realisieren so, dass man die Wahl hat ob die Musik gelöscht wird oder eben nicht. Somit bin ich leider gezwungen eine andere App zu nutzen obwohl ich diese viel lieber mag. ### 4/5 — Good app, newest update (12/2025) needs tweaking *2026-01-16, version 2026.1.10* EDIT: The quick navigation letters were re-added in the latest update (01.10.2026). Thank you very much. Good app, been using it for years and it has done me well for the most part. Had some issues in the past with pretty consistent crashing due (I assume) to my phone running hot, but I chalked that up to my phone being older. Been fine lately in that regard. That said, I recently started getting crashes when clicking on ‘Recently Added’. Every time. Uninstalling/reinstalling fixes it for a minute, then right back to crashing. No idea what that’s about, but not the biggest deal. My main issue is this new update took away the letters on the side of the screen for quick navigation. This is bad for me because I have a big library, and now have to just scroll instead of going to a specific spot. Hopefully that can get re-added. ### 5/5 — Best subsonic client on iOS *2026-01-16, version 2025.12.26* Only client I can find that has CarPlay support. Artists and albums are not loading in but honestly it’s still huge steps ahead of other apps ### 5/5 — Updates are good *2025-12-30, version 2025.12.25* Thanks ### 5/5 — Mega Update, verbesserung *2025-12-29* Update ist mega endlich läuft es auch aufen macbook. Kann ich irgendwie auch direkt auswählen ob es auf meinen iphone oder macbook spielt ? Oder ist das ne Server config. Außerdem wäre es schön wenn das widget Feature überarbeitet wird wenn mann den nächsten Titel drückt geht kurz die app auf und fliegt nach oben das sieht ein bisschen komisch aus 😂😉 ansonsten mega app ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Background playing issues? Really? *2026-07-05, version 2026.7.22* Ok, I have tried substreamer, Amperfy, they are free and have their own pros and cons. I think of trying paid one maybe have better optimization although the UI is not that good. But it turns out I am facing the biggest issue even when I try these players. It will always stopped playing after go to background in about 1-2 minutes. And I’ve tried to reach out it’s 5 stars service also no response😂so anyone can help me? ### 1/5 — App crash *2026-02-23, version 2026.1.22* The app will crash when playing songs. The CPU usage is too high and the system terminate it. It should be a memory leak. It cannot be used normally. I have sent three emails and have not received a reply. ### 1/5 — APP BUG多，UI一般 *2025-12-28* 很难相信这是付费APP，做的很一般 ### 1/5 — Stops in 30 seconds after screen blacks *2025-08-29, version 2024.1* It’s on an old IPhone 12, but with latest updates ### 1/5 — Keeps crashing *2025-06-17, version 2024.1* It seemed pretty solid but now I feel foolish for paying as it constantly crashes in my iPhone 13 mini ### 1/5 — Constantly crashes *2025-05-06, version 2024.1* Starting several months ago, app began crashing constantly. I can’t use it for more than a minute without it crashing, no matter what I do or try. I feel ripped off. No updates in nearly a year. Abandoned? DO NOT BUY! ### 1/5 — buggy *2025-04-25, version 2024.1* lowered to one star search for a track, app crashes dev took my money, doesn’t respond abandonware buy at your own risk … When it works it is delightful It is plagued with subtle problems, many stemming from its insistence on maintaining its own version of your music database, which it handles poorly I have a high performance server, Y U try to duplicate it? Library desyncs, “latest music” screwy in a way no other client displays, etc Songs refuse to play because caching logic gets confused Most annoying of all, UI thread seems to share database sync - app freezes for tens of seconds at a time when server side has changed ### 1/5 — Waste of money *2025-02-28, version 2024.1* the same as other apps which are free. Does not have links to album or artist on now playing. Developer does not respond to emails. Crashes everytime you try to view albums. ### 1/5 — Major Issues *2024-07-10, version 2024.1* I had high hopes for this app. But there’s a serious playback issue where the player rapidly cycles between shuffle, repeat, and repeat all. Almost like the buttons are pressing themselves over and over again. This results in songs repeating themselves or shuffling when not desired. Renders the app basically unusable. ### 1/5 — Perfect except for 1 big bug *2024-07-10, version 2024.1* It's impossible to add a 2nd server or edit an existing one because the Server Setup form disappears when you touch any of the text input fields. I will request a refund if this isn't fixed which is a shame because the app is perfect otherwise. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — The BEST Subsonic Client *2026-07-24, version 2026.8.22* So far, this is the only client I have found (and I have tried MANY) that consistently works exactly how I expect it to. No gaps between tracks, no issues when scrolling around intra-track, and no extra fluff functionality. Everything just works. Do yourself a favor and skip the other apps and just get this one if you’re looking for a Subsonic/Navidrome compatible app! ### 5/5 — Great app that has replaced spotify *2026-07-19, version 2026.7.22* This app has been great to stream my audio collection from a NextCloud instance in my home, completely replacing spotify. ### 5/5 — I just love this app *2026-07-03, version 2026.7.22* Thank you so much for the years of consistent dedication on this app. I find it impossible to replace with anything else 7 years later! ### 5/5 — This app helped me leave Spotify *2026-06-01, version 2026.4.22* Great streaming app for Subsonic which I host on my Nextcloud instance. Full featured, user friendly, and smooth! ### 5/5 — Optimal mit Navidrome *2026-05-31* Nutze die App um meine Musik von meinem Navidrome Server zu streamen. Funktioniert überraschend gut. Auch mit Car Play. Vielen Dank an die Entwickler. ### 5/5 — Au top! *2026-05-28* Cette app à petit prix est pour mon usage la meilleur! Super ergonomie, facile d’utilisation, pas de bug Bref foncez !! ### 5/5 — Maravilhoso *2026-05-14* Totalmente integrado com o ios, boa interface e ótimas opções para configurar uso de dados ### 5/5 — Très bonne appli *2026-05-13* Très bonne application, facilement paramètrable et personnalisable. Fonctionne bien avec CarPlay. Elle vaut son prix. ### 5/5 — Best $5 I have spent in ages *2026-05-11, version 2026.4.22* This app is amazing. It integrated easily with my home Navidrome server and it just works. It even outputs to my Sonos speakers - it just finds them. (Unlike the Sonos app which regularly loses connection to its own hardware). Highly recommended. ### 5/5 — “Silence!!” *2026-04-10, version 2026.1.22* Although at first I could not remember exactly it was not exactly what I had suspected, thank the Big Man up stairs!! I had needed the username to restart the app, I in desperation communicated with my brother in law and retrieved itself. Restarting the app was then simple, and once again I had had my own personal music!! play:Sub Music Streamer has improved my Individual personal ability to enjoy my personal music with my cellular phone…although I have been through five pairs of Apple AirPods.(generation1, generation 2, generation 3).!! You’re the best man, I swear! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-26.*