Sometimes it’s not the grand new feature that makes daily life better — it’s the tidying up. Mobile MA 1.7.1 is exactly that kind of release: two new features I’ve wanted for a while, and a handful of corners that are finally smoothed out.
Rooms — speakers where they belong
Once you have a few speakers around the house, the “All” list gets messy fast. Kitchen, living room, bathroom, kids’ room — at some point you spend more time finding the right speaker than the right song.
1.7.1 introduces Rooms. You create a group — “Kitchen”, “Ground Floor”, “Kids’ Room” or whatever makes sense for you — and assign your speakers to it. From then on, you start playback right in the room: one tap, and every speaker in that group plays in sync, with matched volume. Mobile MA handles the grouping inside Music Assistant in the background.
The speaker view now has a new “Rooms” tab next to “All”. The first time you open it, a short intro screen pops up — to make clear that “Rooms” can be more than just rooms: floors, zones, themes, whatever you like.
Lyrics — finally on screen
I teased it in 1.7, and here it is: lyrics. When a song has lyrics available, the player shows them — readable, scrolling, line by line.
This is powered by LRCLIB, an open lyrics database. If you’d rather not use it, you can simply turn LRCLIB off in Settings — and nothing gets requested.
One detail I particularly like: lyrics that Mobile MA fetches from LRCLIB are written back to Music Assistant automatically. Pull once, available everywhere — even next time you listen on the Sonos in the living room.
From artist into album — no detour
A small but, for me, important improvement: when you tap an artist in your library and open one of their albums, Mobile MA now loads the full album — not just the tracks by that one artist. The artist’s tracks are highlighted, all others dimmed. So you see features, collaborations, and the full album context — without an extra tap.
Settings, tidied up
The Settings dialog had grown over the last few versions — and was looking a bit wild. I’ve trimmed it down to a maximum of five sections, grouped sensibly, and added a few new switches along the way: LRCLIB on/off, plus a developer menu with the version number and diagnostic options.
The “About Mobile MA” section also now lists every framework Mobile MA uses, along with its license. Transparency, because it matters.
Two bugs that really were annoying
- Local playback used to stutter briefly whenever the speaker list refreshed. In 1.7.1 the two are decoupled — refresh runs, music keeps playing.
- The Live Activity (and the indicator in the Dynamic Island) sometimes stuck around long after the music had stopped. Fixed: when the music stops, the indicator stops too.
What’s coming next
On the list: more comfort features around Rooms, a bit more performance polish in various spots, and a few ideas I’m not quite ready to share yet. If you have wishes, send them my way.
The new version is available on the App Store right now. Have fun with it — and even more music in every room.
Version history:
← Previous: Mobile MA 1.7 — Your iPhone Becomes the Speaker
All versions: Mobile MA section
Help & questions: Support form