Aura
Open-source alternative to Zedge — wallpapers, video wallpapers, ringtones, and sounds for Android. YouTube integration, yt-dlp powered.
What Makes Aura Different
- Quality-ranked YouTube sounds — ringtones, notifications, and alarms use intent-specific YouTube searches with tight duration windows and cleaner result filtering.
- Video wallpapers from multiple sources — browse Reddit, Pexels, Pixabay, and YouTube, import local videos/GIFs, then tune loop, crop, Fill, or Fit before applying.
- Multi-source personalization — Wallhaven, Bing, Pexels, Pixabay, Reddit, YouTube, legacy Freesound attributions, and community uploads.
- Instant startup — Discover feed is cached locally. On subsequent launches wallpapers appear immediately while fresh results load in the background.
- Performance proof path — Baseline Profile and Macrobenchmark tests cover startup, Wallpaper Detail, and the main media grids on a physical-device runner.
- 5 bottom nav tabs — Wallpapers, Videos, Sounds, Favorites, Settings.
Quick Start
git clone https://github.com/SysAdminDoc/Aura.git
cd AuraOpen in Android Studio and run. Core browsing works out of the box; optional provider keys can be added later in Settings or local.properties.
Privacy
Aura has no ads, no subscription, and no cross-app tracking. The public privacy policy is tracked at docs/privacy/privacy-policy.md; the same link is available in Settings > About > Privacy policy.
Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| HD/4K Wallpapers | Discover feed from Wallhaven, Pexels, Pixabay, Bing & Reddit |
| Wallpaper Quality Filters | Discover chips for For You, AMOLED, 4K+, Portrait, and Icon Safe with curated ranking |
| Community Wallpapers | Upload phone-cropped gallery images with tags, Palette colors, and community voting |
| Creator Profiles | View upload stats, votes, followed creators, followed uploads, and top creator leaderboard |
| Shareable Collections | Share wallpaper collections as Aura links, QR codes, or JSON files and import them on another device |
| Video Wallpapers | Browse YouTube video wallpapers with ExoPlayer auto-preview or import local clips/GIFs |
| Video Quality Hints | Loop-safe, low-battery, and phone-fit filters plus per-card motion hints |
| Video Fit Modes | Fill for full-screen crop or Fit to preserve the full frame |
| Video Loop & Crop Editor | Trim intros/outros with frame thumbnails, preview the loop, and convert landscape videos to portrait |
| Video Battery Dashboard | Live wallpaper-service heartbeat, battery status, effective FPS, and automatic low-battery capping |
| Parallax Wallpapers | ML Kit depth segmentation for layered tilt-responsive live wallpapers |
| Weather Wallpapers | Live weather effects overlay on wallpapers |
| Touch-Reactive Effects | Optional ripple and sparkle bursts on live wallpaper touches |
| YouTube Sounds | YouTube-first ringtone, notification, and alarm discovery with duration-aware searches powered by NewPipe + yt-dlp |
| Community Sound Uploads | Pick or record sounds, tag them, vote on community picks, and share via Firebase Storage |
| Sound Source Badges | Color-coded source indicators on every sound card |
| Sound Quality Filters | Best, Clean, Short, Calm, and Punchy filters with intent-aware badges |
| Real-Time Waveform | Mini waveform on each sound card tracks actual playback position |
| Configurable Search | Customize YouTube search queries and blocked words per sound tab |
| Ringtones & Sounds | Tab-based browsing: Ringtones (5-45s), Notifications (0-8s), Alarms (5-60s) |
| Sound Editor | Waveform trim, fade in/out, normalize, format convert (MP3/OGG/WAV/FLAC/M4A) |
| Wallpaper Editor | Brightness, contrast, saturation, blur with 6 filter presets |
| Crop & Position | Pinch-zoom with aspect ratio presets (9:16, 16:9, 1:1) |
| Collections | Organize wallpapers into named folders with 2x2 cover previews |
| Home Widget | Glance-based widget for quick shuffle with error feedback |
| Auto Wallpaper | Rotation schedule + source selection including favorites |
| Shuffle FAB | One-tap random wallpaper from current tab |
| Per-Contact Ringtones | Assign custom ringtones to individual contacts |
| Dual Wallpapers | Coordinated home + lock screen wallpaper pairs |
| Favorites Export | JSON export/import with full metadata via Android SAF |
| Community Voting | Upvote/downvote wallpapers and sounds via Firebase |
| OLED Dark Theme | Deep blacks, zero burn-in, Material 3 |
Content Sources
| Source | Content | Auth |
|---|---|---|
| Wallhaven | 1M+ HD/4K wallpapers | None (optional key for NSFW) |
| Pexels | Curated HD photos + videos | Built-in key |
| Pixabay | Editor's choice photos + videos | Built-in key |
| 7 wallpaper + 4 video subreddits | None | |
| YouTube | Video wallpapers + active sound feed via NewPipe + yt-dlp | None |
| Freesound | Legacy sound attribution for older favorites | Built-in key |
| Firebase | Community wallpaper/sound uploads + voting | Built-in |
Architecture
Jetpack Compose UI (16+ screens, 5 bottom nav tabs)
Wallpapers | Videos | Sounds | Favorites | Settings
Editors | Collections | Downloads | Onboarding | Widget
ViewModels (Hilt) + Cache Layer
Repos: Wallhaven, Pexels, Pixabay, Bing, Reddit, YouTube, Freesound legacy,
Collections
Services: WallpaperApplier, SoundApplier, VideoWallpaperService,
ParallaxWallpaperService, WeatherWallpaperService, DualWallpaperService,
DownloadManager, AudioTrimmer, BatchDownload,
ContactRingtone, FavoritesExporter, OfflineFavorites
YouTube: NewPipe Extractor (search) + yt-dlp (stream extraction + FFmpeg crop)
Room DB v14 (Favorites, Downloads, Search History, Wallpaper Cache,
Wallpaper History, Collections)
DataStore (Settings, Onboarding)
Firebase RTDB (Community Voting + Uploads + Admin Moderation)Tech Stack
| Component | Library |
|---|---|
| UI | Jetpack Compose + Material 3 |
| DI | Hilt 2.53.1 |
| Database | Room 2.6.1 |
| Network | Retrofit 2.11.0 + OkHttp |
| JSON | Moshi + KSP codegen |
| Images | Coil 2.7.0 |
| Audio/Video | Media3 ExoPlayer |
| ML | ML Kit Selfie Segmentation |
| YouTube Search | NewPipe Extractor |
| YouTube Streams | yt-dlp (youtubedl-android 0.18.1) |
| Scheduling | WorkManager 2.10.0 |
| Widget | Glance 1.1.1 |
| Performance | Baseline Profile + Macrobenchmark 1.4.1 |
| Min SDK | 26 (Android 8.0) |
| Target SDK | 35 (Android 15) |
| Kotlin | 2.1.0 |
Building
Requires JDK 17+ and Android SDK 35. Android Studio Ladybug (2024.2.1) or later recommended.
./gradlew assembleDebug # use gradlew.bat on Windows
./gradlew assembleRelease # requires signing configAlways use the included Gradle wrapper. It pins Gradle 8.12 which is required by AGP 8.7.3.
Copy local.properties.example to local.properties for local SDK, optional API keys, and release signing values. GitHub tag releases use repository secrets to build a signed, non-debuggable release APK, verify it with apksigner, attach SHA256SUMS.txt, and create GitHub artifact attestations for GitHub/Obtainium users. See release signing docs, the distribution channel strategy, alternative-store disclosures, release metadata consistency, SBOM readiness, store asset planning, Android developer verification prep, and supply-chain verification.
Contributing
Issues and PRs welcome. Please follow existing code style (Kotlin, Compose, Hilt patterns). For crashes or ANRs, use Settings > Diagnostics > Crash diagnostics bundle and paste it into the crash report template; see crash diagnostics. For community identity deletion requests, use Settings > Community identity and the private request flow in community account deletion requests.
License
MIT License - see LICENSE for details.
Content from third-party sources retains its original license. YouTube content is accessed via NewPipe Extractor and yt-dlp under their respective open-source licenses.