Your Plex library, done right on iPhone
[Entertainment] Free open source
released 2026-03
Crucible is a fast, native Plex client for iPhone — and a love letter to building iOS apps without a Mac. The whole app is Swift 6 and programmatic UIKit, cross-compiled on Arch Linux and deployed straight to an iPhone over USB. No Xcode, no storyboards, no macOS anywhere in the loop. Continue Watching, On Deck, and Recently Added greet you on the home screen. Browse libraries as poster grids with genre filters and sort options, or dig into raw folders for unindexed content. Skip Intro and Skip Credits straight from Plex markers, Picture-in-Picture with background audio, lock screen and Control Center controls, and Up Next that rolls the next episode as the credits start. Direct play when your device can handle the file, automatic HLS transcoding when it can't. Download movies, whole seasons, or single episodes at the quality you pick — Original, High, Medium, Low, or Data Saver. Background transfers keep going when the app is closed and resume after interruptions, downloads stay Wi-Fi-only unless you allow cellular, and a dedicated Downloads tab shows progress, storage used, and free space. A Live Activity tracks live progress on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island — a WidgetKit extension compiled and signed on Arch Linux via xtool — while downloads run in the background, auto-resume from where they left off, and ping you when they finish. Offline playback runs through the same player — Skip Intro/Credits, resume, Picture-in-Picture, background audio, and lock screen controls all work with no network. Cast and crew, More Like This recommendations, subtitle and audio track selection, and adjustable playback speed. Hand a title off between your devices and find what you've watched in Spotlight. Crucible is free and open source under the GPL-3.0 license, with zero third-party dependencies — pure Apple frameworks. Read the code, file an issue, or build it yourself.
features
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Offline downloads with a Lock Screen Live Activity and background transfers
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Skip Intro/Credits, PiP, and background audio
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Direct play with automatic HLS transcoding fallback