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What Quiblo is
A free, open-source Android IPTV client that plays playlists you supply yourself.
# In one sentence
Quiblo is a free, open-source, GPLv3-licensed Android IPTV client that plays Live TV, video-on-demand and series from playlists the user supplies themselves.
It is a media player in the same category as VLC or Jellyfin. You give it a playlist or an account; it shows you what is in there and plays it. It has no opinion about, and no knowledge of, what your playlist contains.
# Two applications, one engine
Quiblo ships as two Android applications built from one codebase:
| Build | Application id | For |
|---|---|---|
:app | dev.quiblo.player | Phones and tablets, portrait-first, touch |
:app-tv | dev.quiblo.tv | Android TV and Google TV, landscape, remote only |
They are separate application ids, not build flavours. That means two installs, two databases and two launcher entries — and it means the phone APK installed on a television runs but never appears in the TV launcher, because it declares no leanback launcher category.
What they share is everything that is not a screen: the data layer, the database, the source parsers, the player engine and every ViewModel. The television is a presentation layer and nothing more. Architecture explains how that is enforced rather than merely intended.
# What it is not
These are decisions, not gaps. Each was considered and rejected, and the reasons are worth knowing because they explain most of the architecture.
- Not a content service. We host, index, bundle, aggregate and distribute zero streams. It ships with no default playlist, no channel directory, no "discover content" feature and no built-in provider list.
- Not a backend. There is no server component, no user accounts, no telemetry, no cloud sync and no remote configuration. Nothing about the app can be changed by anyone other than the person holding the device. Profiles are not an exception: they are rows in the local database with no password and no server behind them, and they answer "whose favourites are these" rather than "who is allowed to sign in".
- Not a DRM client. No Widevine, no ClearKey, no PlayReady in v1. A DASH stream carrying Widevine will fail at the licence step, and that is correct behaviour rather than a bug to chase.
- Not a downloader or recorder. No recording, no catch-up, no timeshift in v1.
The first two are the load-bearing ones. Because there is no backend and no bundled content, there is no infrastructure to fund, nothing to take down, and no position to defend about what anyone is watching.
# The name
"Quiblo" is deliberately meaningless. We chose it to stay clear of the "VIPTV" / "VIP TV" namespace, which is saturated with paid subscription resellers — distance from that space is a legal and reputational asset rather than an accident, and the string should not appear in the package id, repository name, store listing or documentation.
A name that is hard to mistake for a service is exactly what a player wants. Quiblo is software; what you point it at is yours.