What you need to know
- An Android developer has come up with a cool way to make use of old phones: turning them into retro music players
- NostalgiaPod is an iPod-inspired music player with plenty of cool modern features
- It was created by Italian developer Jesús Manuel Curreri, who tells Android Central that the response has been ‘incredible’ thus far
We all have some old phones lying around, and one Italian Android developer has come up with a nifty way to repurpose them as retro music players.
NostalgicPod is an app that transforms your Android phone into an iPod-inspired music machine, complete with that classic, simple menu interface and simulated click wheel navigation. There are no ads and no distractions — unless you count the small handful of throwback games that are built in, including the likes of Snake and, of course, Brick Breaker.
I’ve been testing the app throughout the morning, and it’s a pretty impressive package that offers a cool way to play local music files. Despite the retro appearance, there are plenty of modern features here too, such as the ability to connect your Apple Music account to access your virtual libraries and a separate menu that lets you browse a selection of internet radio stations and podcasts.
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If you host your own music collection, you can even hook the player up to your personal Plex, Jellyfin, or Navidrome servers — something I’ve been meaning to set up for a while in order to digitally preserve some of the rarer items in my CD collection and might finally now get around to.
Bringing the magic of music back
About 6 months ago, I turned my old Pixel into an iPod. Here’s what’s happened since!
from r/pixel_phones
“There are millions of old phones sitting in drawers that still work perfectly fine, but we simply don’t use them anymore. With NostalgicPod, you can turn one of those phones into a dedicated music player,” NostalgicPod developer Jesús Manuel Curreri tells Android Central.
“I’ve always loved that era when devices had their own personality. The iPod Classic, for example, was something special: a wheel, a screen, and all your music,” he adds. “You didn’t need much more than that. My brother and I actually had one that we shared, and I remember thinking it was the perfect device for listening to music.”
He argues that most modern music apps are too focused on recommendations and algorithms, losing some of the “magic” of truly curating your own library.
The app, first released a few months ago, was an immediate success and has since been launched on iOS. “I honestly never imagined the project would go this far,” says Curreri. “When I first launched NostalgicPod on Android, the response was incredible. Several tech publications covered the app, and some of my Reddit posts received an amazing response.”
“I eventually decided to bring the project to iPhone, although getting Apple’s approval turned into quite an adventure. It took months of rejections, appeals, and conversations with Apple, but I finally got there!”
The iOS version of the app shot up to the number three spot in the paid Music category in the US and became number one in Germany. Curreri estimates that across all platforms, NostalgicPod has reached “around eight thousand users over these past few months” thanks to pure word of mouth.
He also says that he intends to continue updating the app with new features, customization options, and performance improvements based on user feedback: “My goal is to keep NostalgicPod a complete, fast, customizable music player that people can enjoy for years, without losing the simplicity of the original experience.”
If you’re interested in giving it a go for yourself, you can pick up NostalgicPod for $4.39 / £3.99 on the Google Play Store.
