SubRead Overlay

Shows the lines of an .srt over any Android media player, in time with it. Tap a word to look it up.

Shows the lines of a subtitle file (.srt) over the app that plays your audiobook or video. The line follows the position of the player. Tap a word to select it, and send it to a dictionary.

It works with each Android player that publishes a media session: Voice, VLC, mpv-android, YouTube, Smart AudioBook Player, podcast apps. No player needs a change, and the app has no network permission.

The pictures are from a Viwoods AiPaper Reader, with Voice as the player.

How to use it Allow "Show over other apps". Allow notification access. Android gives the position of other apps only to an app with this access. The app uses it for the media position, the speed, and play or pause. It does not read, keep or send a notification: the listener has no onNotificationPosted. Choose the .srt file. Choose the dictionary for "Look up", or let Android ask each time. Each app that has an entry in the text selection menu is in the list (Takoboto, Aedict, AnkiDroid, a translator). Press "Show the subtitles", then start the player. Two settings change the panel: how much of the player shows through it, and whether it shows the line before and the line after the line of now.

On the panel:

≡ moves the panel. A tap on a word pauses the player at once and selects the word. A drag selects more words. When the finger lifts, the selection goes to the dictionary. "Share" opens the share sheet of Android, for an app without an entry in the text selection menu. "Copy" copies it. ▶ starts the player again after a lookup. ⏸ pauses it. ⋯ opens the timing row. −0.5 s and +0.5 s shift the subtitles. ◀ line and line ▶ make the line before, or the next line, the line of now. Use them when the media has an intro that the subtitle file does not have. ✕ closes the panel. The line stays on the panel until the next line starts, also in a silence, so that there is time to look a word up.

How the timing works A media session reports a position, the time of that report, and the speed. PlayClock computes the position of now from these three. Follower sleeps until the next line starts and wakes on each report of the player (pause, seek, speed). It does not poll.

A player that reports no position: Android counts from zero when that player starts to play, and the panel holds its line in a pause. Set the timing with ◀ line and line ▶.

The app does not use an accessibility service, and will not. Players that hide their position (Netflix, some DRM players) are not supported.