Developer asks Jellyfin community what an ideal all-in-one player should do
A developer who has spent the past six months building a media player called alkemyo has turned to r/jellyfin for input, and the thread is a useful snapshot of what self-hosters actually want from a client. The motivation is familiar: too many apps spread across too many devices just to watch your own library. The stated goal is one native application that covers every screen you use.
According to the post, the project is still pre-alpha, and the author says that is deliberate — they would rather ship something solid than rush a rough build out the door. The planned stack is native Swift and .NET 10 codebases tied together by a unifying framework, with a custom playback engine rather than Electron or Flutter.
What the developer has planned
The feature list is ambitious and touches on a lot of the friction points self-hosters run into:
- Multiple server connections, with content from Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Silo, Kavita, Komga and Audiobookshelf merged into one view.
- A custom playback engine covering common video formats, including Dolby Vision Profile 7 with FEL preserved.
- Native integrations for Seerr, Trakt, MAL, AniList and Kitsu.
- Video and audio playback plus reading support across devices.
- Watch Together, and list management that groups watchlist titles into buckets called Channels.
- Live TV natively and through Plex, Jellyfin and Emby, with Dispatcharr direct support under consideration.
- Deep UI customization: full color palette control, movable modules, switchable sections and themes.
- Foldable support for iPhone Duo and Android foldables.
- Highlighting a section of any content to replay later as a clip.
The target platforms listed are iOS, iPadOS, macOS on Apple Silicon, watchOS, tvOS, CarPlay, Android on ARM, Linux, Wear OS, Android Auto, Android TV and Windows x64.
Who this affects
Anyone running Jellyfin alongside other media servers, or juggling several client apps per household, stands to benefit if this lands. The multi-server merging and Live TV plans are the parts most likely to matter to mixed setups.
Why it matters
Client fragmentation is one of the most common complaints in self-hosting circles, and a player that treats Jellyfin as a first-class source while pulling in other libraries would remove a lot of daily friction. It is also a reminder that the ecosystem's direction is shaped by feedback, not just code.
Commentary for self-hosters
Treat this as a conversation, not a product announcement. Nothing here is released yet, and pre-alpha plans change. If you reply, be concrete: describe your actual setup, the devices in your house and the one workflow you keep hacking around. That is far more useful to a developer than a wish list of buzzwords. Keep expectations realistic about timelines, and keep testing the clients you already run in the meantime. If you want to extend your current server while you wait, our Jellyfin plugins are built for exactly that kind of incremental improvement.