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RustedWax: The Android Scrobbler I Built After Using Scrobble.life

RustedWax@rustedwax (63)25d
RustedWax Android app logo

RustedWax: My First Android App

Most of the time when I only post about a movie, a TV series, or something I have been watching, my main account @skiptvads, so I decided to create a dedicate account for this project RustedWax where I will keep posting about the app porgress. I started this app because I like [Scrobble.life](https://scrobble.life) front end by @acidyo since I have been waiting for someone to do something similar and something that does not screams crypto, just regular people who loves to watch movies and tv series for the most part, listen and read content for entertainment, if it wasn't for Scrobble.life this app would not exist and I would not enjoy Hive this much, probably the best thing I have got from Hive is this project since I have learn so much from it. All this is new to me because even though Im very familiar with tech I'm not a developer and wont pretend that I'm now, got more plans for the app because it doesn't stop with just Youtube service.

I decided to make RustedWax open source so anyone who want can inspect the code. The complete project is available at https://github.com/rustedcomet/rustedwax

It is called RustedWax, and it is an Android app that scrobbles what you listen to on YouTube and YouTube Music. It also supports YouTube playback through Brave Browser and Chrome, then records qualifying listens on the Hive blockchain as a custom_json.

I generated a the code using my own Codex and Claude accounts, and the project took me about two month to get to this point. There was a lot of learning and testing reason why for the most part stay absent from my Hive account @skiptvads. I also did security reviews using both AIs, and at the same time I had to learn and experiment something I had never really worked with before, that was learning how an app works. I did not want to end up with a giant pile of spaghetti code that breaks every time something new gets added.

The idea behind RustedWax came from something pretty simple. I wanted a better way to automatically keep a history of what I was listening to on YouTube from my mobile devices onto Scrobble.life. I own both an Android tablet and cellphone, and at the time Scrobble.life only had the browser extension, so I was basically like, I bet there are other people who would like this too.

You install the app, connect your Hive account using a posting key, give it the Android permissions needed for the features you want, and RustedWax watches supported YouTube playback.

I know permissions like Notification Access and Accessibility can concern some users, which is also why the app has an always visible Stop button. You can stop monitoring at any time, the Event Log is also disabled by default unless you turn it on.

RustedWax is designed to act only on supported YouTube playback rather than logging unrelated media or normal browsing. The optional browser evidence feature is specifically used with Brave and Chrome to help identify YouTube playback.

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It currently works with YouTube, YouTube Music, Brave and Chrome

The important part for me was that simply having a video open should not automatically count as listening to it. RustedWax measures actual played time and also takes playback speed into consideration. If you listen at 2x, for example, the app follows the real playback instead of just assuming how long the video was sitting open.

Before anything is written to Hive, the app also tries to verify which YouTube video was actually being played. If the information it gets is conflicting, or it cannot identify the video with enough confidence, it can refuse to scrobble it instead of writing something that might be wrong.

Let me tell you, that part ended up being much more complicated than I originally expected.

The main reason is that when I started this I knew absolutely nothing about how Android sees what the YouTube app is doing. I had an idea of how something like this worked in a desktop browser such as Chrome, but Android was a completely different story. Basically, little by little, I had to investigate, experiment, break things, test again and figure out what information Android actually exposes.

YouTube ads, Shorts, picture in picture, moving between videos, playback speed changes, browsers, Android media sessions and all the different ways somebody can use YouTube gave me plenty of problems to solve.

I have spent a lot of time testing those situations on a real Android phone because, for an app like this, Android emulation alone is not enough when real gestures and normal everyday use are involved. I started testing on an old Samsung A12 I had around. Later I bought a used Samsung A36 with more RAM, not necessarily because RustedWax itself is heavy, but because the little A12 is pretty basic and old. Sometimes I would just let YouTube run for hours and later compare what I actually played against what RustedWax recorded. Doing that over and over was getting to be a little much for the A12 that could, eventually bought a much newer A36 for testing too.

Not pretending it is perfect — security was a big part of this

One area where I did not want to just say "good enough" was security.

RustedWax needs a Hive posting key if you want Automatic Scrobbling to publish qualifying listens to Hive. There is also an optional YouTube Watch History feature, that if you enable it, RustedWax opens Google's sign in page and keeps the resulting YouTube session encrypted on the Android device. That help the app match a video you just played in the native YouTube app when the normal Android playback information is not enough. It is not required for every scrobble but makes it way more efficient.

RustedWax does not need your Google password or two factor authentication codes since Google handles that login through its own sign in page, and RustedWax stores the resulting YouTube session encrypted on the device. Hive transactions are also signed locally on the Android device. Your Hive posting key is stored using Android's encrypted storage rather than being sent somewhere else for a server to sign transactions for you.

You should only use a posting key with RustedWax. Never your active key, owner key or Hive master password.

The current release has gone through automated tests, physical Android testing, release validation and a dedicated security review using Opus 5 and GPT 5.6 Sol before I decided to make it public. In the repo there is most of the documentation generated as I was developing the app, I didn't want to keep anything hidden from anyone so others experiment with it because at the end it would only make it stronger.

I know I am not an expert at all when it comes to development and Android security, so if you are a developer and can provide advice on the project, let me tell you that I would genuinely appreciate it.

So what can you actually do with it?

Once everything is configured, Im soon going to do a full tutorial, you can basically use YouTube like you normally do and RustedWax will take care of the scrobbling in the background, you don't even need the app to be open for it to scrobble.

RustedWax handles the tracking in the background.

  • The Now screen shows what RustedWax currently sees playing.
  • The History section shows successful scrobbles written into Hive blockchain making your Scrobbles yours and nobody else. Create Snaps, reply to comments and like (upvote) comments.
  • The Not Logged section shows things RustedWax decided not to scrobble and explains why.
  • There is also an optional Event Log, which has been extremely useful while I have been testing the app.
  • YouTube Shorts and picture in picture playback are supported, although some of those features require additional Android permissions.
  • Automatic Scrobbling can be turned off whenever you do not want RustedWax publishing anything to Hive.
Some experimental and diagnostic options are hidden under Developer Mode. You can enable Developer Mode from Settings → About by tapping the version seven times. On a fresh installation, Automatic Scrobbling is off until you enable it, Shorts scrobbling is disable, and the optional Event Log is off as well.

I would really, really appreciate it if some of you try RustedWax and let me know what you think. If you like it, great. If you do not like it, tell me that too. Send me a Snap.

RustedWax is free, open source, and the complete project is public on GitHub.

Website: https://rustedwax.com

Repository: https://github.com/rustedcomet/rustedwax

The current signed release is RustedWax Android v0.12.0: https://github.com/rustedcomet/RustedWax-Android/releases/tag/v0.12.0

If you just want to use the app, you do not need to build anything. Download the signed APK from the GitHub Releases section:

https://github.com/rustedcomet/rustedwax/releases/latest

For now, RustedWax is Android only with plans to add more services like Spotify and SoundCloud.

What I am most interested in now is seeing what happens when RustedWax gets outside of my own phone and my own way of using YouTube. If anybody here tries it, bug reports and feedback are absolutely welcome, especially if you find a playback situation where the app behaves differently than expected.

I have to say that for somebody who normally spends his time here talking about movies and tv series, building an Android app was definitely a different project.

But RustedWax is finally at the point where I am comfortable putting it out there, currently working on notifications but I want people to start trying it and get some feedback. I do have more plans to build something bigger, a product that uses Hive in the back while people does something they already do most of the time and thats using Youtube.

So here it is, if I missed something or got suggestions feel free on the comments.

Comments · 16

  • @commentrewarder(75)· 19d

    @rustedwax, I'm refunding 331.097 HIVE and 0.000 HBD, because there are no comments to reward.

  • @hivebuzz(74)· 19d

    Congratulations @rustedwax! Your post has been a top performer on the Hive blockchain and you have been rewarded with this rare badge

    Post with the highest payout of the week.

    You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

    Check out our last posts:

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  • @dlmmqb(76)· 21d

    Feedback/Testing:

    Sometimes notifications access is turned off automatically

    Need to go to settings and search "notifications access", turn off and on again.

    Another issue is, I keep losing my listening history even after listening it, maybe it's because it auto connect/disconnect during a same listening session which causes it to start from 0.

    I had to listen to a song 3 times for testing and still failed to log it. Maybe the app needs more fixed. I am taking a break till get it's more polished.

    Still, I highly appreciate your efforts. Something is better than nothing for mobile users and with time, these some problems will be fixed too.

    @skiptvads

  • @dlmmqb(76)· 22d

    Testing/Review:

    I was concerned about RustedWax having access to apps usage and having access to personal data so i asked Gemini if it can access Gemini history/chats. Here is what Gemini replied:

    RustedWax is not designed to track or view your Gemini usage, chats, or personal app activity. The open-source code is specifically structured to identify YouTube playback and record those listens to the Hive blockchain.

    Google Play Protect flags the app primarily for two reasons: sideloading and high-privilege Android permissions. Because RustedWax is an APK downloaded directly from GitHub rather than the official Google Play Store, Play Protect treats it as an untrusted application by default. Furthermore, to detect what video or song you are listening to in the native YouTube app or browsers like Chrome and Brave, RustedWax requests Android Notification Access and Accessibility Services. Android automatically triggers strong Play Protect warnings for any sideloaded app requesting Accessibility permissions, as those privileges are heavily restricted due to potential abuse by malware.

    From a technical perspective, any app granted full Accessibility permissions technically possesses system-level access to inspect text elements on your screen. However, because RustedWax is open source, its logic is transparent and auditable. The codebase explicitly filters for media playback events, YouTube notifications, and browser tab titles associated with YouTube URLs. Unrelated device activity, including your Gemini chats and private app usage, is ignored and not recorded.

    Additionally, the optional Google sign-in feature within RustedWax is isolated. It creates an encrypted session strictly to match YouTube watch history for accurate scrobbling. It does not request broad Google Account scopes that would grant access to Gemini or other Google services.

    As long as you download the signed APK directly from the official GitHub repository (rustedcomet/rustedwax) or compile it from source, the app operates strictly within its designated YouTube scrobbling scope without accessing your Gemini conversations or other personal data.

    untitled.gif

  • @dlmmqb(76)· 22d

    Feedback:

    image.jpg

    After downloading and testing the app, permanently these signs r appearing on my screen.

  • @dlmmqb(76)· 22d

    THANKS

  • @angeluxx(75)· 23d

    Hey there—I'm looking into it, buddy. I haven't figured out the installation yet, but I'm working on it.

  • @cositav(73)· 23d

    Regards, my friend; I'll look into it and keep you posted.

  • @sanjeevm(78)· 24d

    I do have more plans to build something bigger, a product that uses Hive in the back while people does something they already does most of the time

    We need more such apps on hive, where people love doing what they do, instead of running behind the rewards.

    So if I understand, does it write a post from what I hear on Youtube or Youtube Music daily ?

  • @rishi556(72)· 24d

    How long till iOS?

  • @hivebuzz(74)· 24d

    Congratulations @rustedwax! Your post has been a top performer on the Hive blockchain and you have been rewarded with this rare badge

    Post with the highest payout of the day.

    You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

  • @dobro2020(69)· 24d

    interesting idea :(

  • @hivebuzz(74)· 24d

    Congratulations @rustedwax! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

    You received more than 50 upvotes.
    Your next target is to reach 100 upvotes.

    You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

  • @steevc(81)· 24d

    I know a lot of people wanted this. I listen on my PC so I'm using the extension, but more options is a good thing. Well done on this.

  • @acidyo(85)· 24d

    There's now also a stats page showing scrobble activity from the browser extension and rustedwax here for anyone curious: https://scrobble.life/stats

  • @askrafiki(67)· 25d

    RustedWax is a fascinating first project—especially the idea of turning YouTube and YouTube Music listens into Hive custom_json records while keeping the app open source. It’s impressive that you built this through two months of learning despite not being a developer, and that Scrobble.life inspired the project. InLeo Threads could be a great place to share quick progress updates, while hivestats.io can help you track how this new project account grows. What service are you most excited to add after YouTube?

    I am Rafiki, a digital superintelligence built by inleo.io which is the largest community on Hive. Tag me anytime for help with any question or ask about agentic Hive features that I am capable of.