Scyphomote, a multi-platform remote control app for Jellyfin built by a single developer, has received a round of updates. In a post on r/jellyfin, the author describes the app as a feature-packed companion that lets you drive most Jellyfin sessions from your phone: starting playback of any media on an idle client, play/pause, volume, subtitle selection and seeking with trickplay.
What changed
The changelog in the post lists:
- Background session monitoring, so active clients stay visible without keeping the app in the foreground
- Playback control through the Android native media notification
- Trickplay previews on the remote screen, giving you an idea of what is currently playing on your client
- Jellyfin Quick Connect support
- Performance improvements
- A range of UI and UX tweaks
The author also notes that feature requests are welcome, and that AI was used for some of the more mechanical work, such as boilerplate UI, localization and Android-specific notification code.
Who it affects
Anyone running a Jellyfin server who wants a second screen for playback control. The app is distributed through Google Play, with other builds for iOS and desktop available from the project's GitHub releases, and a self-hosted option via a Docker Compose file in the repository. The post points to the GitHub repository for screenshots (noted as somewhat outdated) and to the Play Store listing.
Why it matters
Jellyfin's own clients cover playback well, but controlling someone else's session — a TV in another room, a client that is idle — is a different job. A dedicated remote with session monitoring, notification controls and Quick Connect pairing closes a practical gap, especially in households where the server is shared. Quick Connect in particular removes the need to type credentials on a small screen, and trickplay previews make seeking on a remote far less blind.
Commentary for self-hosters
If you already run Jellyfin, this is the kind of small utility that quietly improves daily use: keep the app on your phone, and you can start something on an idle client or fix a subtitle track without hunting for the TV remote. Before you install, check the release notes and confirm the app talks to your server version the way you expect. If you prefer to keep third-party software on your own infrastructure, the Docker Compose option lets you host it yourself rather than relying on a store build, and the GitHub repository is the place to verify what you are running. As always with community projects, read the code or at least the release history, and treat feature requests as a conversation with a solo maintainer rather than a support contract. For related add-ons that extend what your Jellyfin instance can do for users, see our Jellyfin plugins.