Saga is a native Android audiobook player for Plex Media Server, built with Flutter. It picks up where Plex's own app leaves off — a focused listening experience designed around how audiobooks are actually consumed.
Vibecoded — but not blindly. Saga was built through conversational AI-assisted development with Claude: screens, fixes, and architecture worked out collaboratively in chat. Every decision was reviewed and reasoned through, not just accepted — and the result is fully open source, so you can audit exactly what it does. A personal project to make a Plex audiobook app I'd actually want to use.
Playback
- M4B and multi-track audiobook support with embedded chapter detection and jump-to
- Book-level progress bar and seek across the full book (multi-file aware)
- Variable speed playback (0.75×–3×) with per-book speed memory and configurable default
- Background playback with lock-screen and notification controls (rewind / play-pause / fast-forward)
- Configurable skip interval (15 / 30 / 45 / 60 s) applied to notification and in-app controls
- Sleep timer — fixed duration or end-of-current-chapter
- Smart rewind on resume — proportional seek-back after a pause, capped at 60 s
- Chromecast support via native Cast SDK
- Headphone unplug auto-pause; audio focus duck / pause for calls and notifications
Library
- Browse your Plex audiobook library: full-text search, sort by title / author, grid or list toggle
- Browse by author with Plex thumbnail photos
- Continue Listening — most recently played books surfaced at the top of Home
- Up Next in Series — next unstarted book per custom collection, deduped against Continue Listening
- Recently Added — deduped against both upper sections
- Switch between multiple Plex libraries from Settings
Custom Collections
- Create, rename, and delete collections
- Drag-to-reorder within a collection (insertion order drives Up Next in Series)
Progress & Bookmarks
- Automatic position saving every 10 s, plus on pause, background, and process exit
- Named bookmarks with custom labels; bookmark list sheet with jump-to and delete
- Mark books as completed (tracked with timestamps, supports re-reads)
- Tappable session log per book: play/pause events with timestamps and per-session durations
- Backup and restore all progress to a JSON export (credentials-free)
Downloads
- Download individual tracks or full books for offline playback
- Download badge on cover tiles; seamless switch between local and stream playback
Listening Stats — 3-tab History screen
- Day — streak banner (current + longest), animated weekly bar chart, expandable day rows showing which book was played with session-level detail and jump-to-position
- Month — navigable monthly calendar heatmap with bookmark and completion indicators, stat cards (days listened / best day / avg per day), by-week bars, books-touched list
- Total — lifetime hours, finished-books shelf, 13-week contribution heatmap, streak and best-day records
Themes
| Ink (dark) | Cream (light) | Terracotta |
|---|---|---|
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- A running Plex Media Server with an audiobook library
- An Android device (API 21+)
- A Plex account (free or Plex Pass)
Prerequisites: Flutter SDK (stable channel), Android SDK, a connected Android device or emulator.
git clone https://github.com/gaut3/saga.git
cd saga/saga
flutter pub get
flutter runTo build and install a release APK without wiping app data:
flutter build apk --release --obfuscate --split-debug-info=build/debug-info
adb install -r build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apkUse
adb install -rrather thanflutter install— the-rflag replaces the APK in place and preserves all Hive-encrypted local data (bookmarks, history, settings).
| Layer | Library |
|---|---|
| UI | Flutter + Riverpod |
| Audio engine | just_audio + audio_service + audio_session |
| Local storage | Hive (AES-256 encrypted) |
| Secure storage | flutter_secure_storage (Android Keystore) |
| Networking | dio + cached_network_image |
| Cast | Google Cast SDK (Default Media Receiver) |
| M4B chapters | Custom FFmpeg metadata reader |
Saga is local-first with no analytics, no crash reporting SDK, and nothing transmitted anywhere except your own Plex server and plex.tv for sign-in.
- Plex token stored in the Android Keystore via
flutter_secure_storage - All local data (bookmarks, history, settings) encrypted with AES-256 via Hive
android:allowBackup="false"— data cannot be swept into Google cloud backup or pulled viaadb backup- Progress export is credentials-free (no token, no server URL)
- No Google Fonts, no Firebase, no third-party analytics of any kind
- Open the app and sign in with your Plex account.
- Saga will auto-discover your Plex server on the local network; remote access via relay works too.
- Select your audiobook library from Settings if you have more than one.
- Tap any book to start listening. Your place is saved automatically.
Saga is an independent, third-party client. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Plex Inc. or Plex in any way. "Plex" is a trademark of Plex Inc.