Möbius
Your collection. One continuous story. Your own media server and the apps to watch it, on Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web: 24/7 channels of your own shows, Marathons that never lose your place, and a Kids space.
About
Möbius (called Now Playing until November 2026) is your own media server and the apps to watch it. Möbius Server runs on a computer at home and looks after your films, shows and music: artwork and details, watched marks shared live with every screen, intro and credits markers, theme songs from each show's own opening, and conversion when a screen needs it. The Möbius app is one app for Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Mac, and there is a web player that looks and works like the iPhone app. The app also works with a plain Emby server, with no plugins.
Sick of scrolling and never picking a show? Let Möbius tell you what to watch: your own files running like TV channels, and Marathons that carry several shows on as one story.
Möbius does not provide, sell or link to any films, shows or music. It plays only what is already on your own server.
What it does
- 24/7 channels from your own library: what's on is what's on. Flip channels while watching, a channel guide, "On now" on Top Shelf, and ready-made channels (Star Trek, Marvel, Arrowverse and more) made in one go from what you have.
- Marathons: several shows and films in one order (as it aired, take turns, best first), built from rules, with about 85 ready-made ones. Buffy and Angel as they aired, and it never loses your place.
- Channels and Marathons are worked out on Möbius Server, so the TV, your phone and the web player agree on what's on and where you're up to.
- A Kids space: 24/7 kids channels, Kids Marathons and family titles up to the rating you choose, with "Lock to Kids" and an optional code.
- Apple's own player in the app: 4K, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and frame-rate matching. MKV and MP4 files are repackaged on the device, so the server rarely converts.
- Home rows plus Top 10 this week, In memoriam and Because you watched; each person can show or hide rows.
- Skip intro, recap and credits, theme songs, trailers, extras, chapters, subtitles (never burnt in) and watched marks.
- Music with timed lyrics, Sing-along and a full-screen visualiser drawn live from the sound.
- Several servers and several people per device; on Apple TV each profile remembers its own person.
- Digital signage: a photo or home-video channel full screen for a shop, office or waiting room.
What's next
- Away from home with nothing to set up: Möbius Connect is running; homes whose router won't open a port need a relay, still to come.
- Ready-to-install Möbius Server for other people's computers (today it runs on our own test machines).
- First runs on real devices, a TestFlight beta, then the App Store.
- Premium (Channels and Marathons, for Möbius Server and the apps): a 7-day free trial, then A$14.99. Everything else free.
App Store information
What Apple asks every app to publish, in one place.
| Privacy policy | emgee.dev/mobius/privacy |
|---|---|
| Support | emgee.dev/mobius/support · support@emgee.dev |
| App Privacy label | Data Not Collected (the app). The app sends nothing to us: data goes to the media server you choose, and public lookups carry no information about you. Möbius Connect is used by Möbius Server, not the app; what it keeps is in the privacy policy. |
| Tracking | None. No App Tracking Transparency prompt, because nothing tracks you. |
| Accounts | No accounts with us; you sign in to your own server (or Emby Connect). Nothing in the app to delete with us. Removing a server in Settings deletes its sign-in from the device. |
| Content | Plays only media on the user's own server. Supplies no content. Age rating follows Apple's questionnaire for an app with no content of its own; parental limits come from the server's own user settings and the app's Kids limit. |
| Purchases | Free during beta. Then the app is free, and Premium (Channels and Marathons, for Möbius Server and the apps) is A$14.99, with a 7-day free trial. In the app it is an Apple in-app purchase that covers every device, with Restore Purchases. No outside payment links in the app. |
| Encryption | Uses only the standard encryption built into Apple's systems (HTTPS); exempt from export documentation. |
| Permissions | Local network: to find Möbius and Emby servers on your home network. Background audio: so music keeps playing behind the screen saver. |
| Requires | Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K with tvOS 17 or later; iPhone or iPad with iOS or iPadOS 17 or later; or a Mac with Apple silicon (macOS 14 or later). And a Möbius Server or Emby server you can sign in to. |
| Developer | EmGee.dev (Michael Girdwood), Melbourne, Australia |
| Trademarks | Apple, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Mac, tvOS and Dolby Vision belong to their owners. Emby is a trademark of Emby LLC. Möbius is independent, not made or endorsed by Apple or Emby LLC. |
Security statement
- Möbius Server signs every person in with their own password; the apps keep the access token in the device's Keychain.
- Away from home, the server is reached over HTTPS with its own Let's Encrypt certificate, and sign-in attempts are limited. Your films go straight from your home to your device, never through us.
- Möbius Connect knows only a random server id, a secret it keeps as a hash, the server's name, and your home's internet address and port. It cannot see your library, your people or anything you watch.
- Uses HTTPS whenever your server offers it, and always for every other service. Plain HTTP is allowed only for addresses on your home network.
- No analytics, crash-reporting or advertising code anywhere: not in the apps, the server or the web player.
- Built on our own code, Apple's frameworks and our own FFmpeg build (LGPL); no third-party analytics or ad libraries.
Shared platform measures (servers, backups, updates, monitoring) are on the Security page. Found a problem? security@emgee.dev.
Privacy statement
What it keeps
- No accounts, no analytics, no tracking. We never receive your library, your viewing, your name or your email.
- Möbius Connect (away-from-home access, on by default in Möbius Server and can be turned off): your server's random id, a hash of its secret, its name, your home's internet address and the port, and when it last checked in.
- On your server: your library, people, passwords (hashed), watched state, Marathons and channels. It is yours; we have no access to it.
- On your device: the servers you add, sign-in tokens (Keychain), settings, and saved copies of pictures and public lookups.
- Public lookups by the app and the server carry titles, public ids or a song's name, never who you are.
Why
To play your media, keep every screen in step, fill in artwork, subtitles, lyrics and skip markers, and (with Connect) give your server a name that points to your home.
Where it is kept
Your library and viewing stay on your own server and devices. Connect's small record is on our server in Australia.
Who else sees it
| Service | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Your own Möbius Server (or Emby server) | Everything the apps show and play. You (or whoever runs it) control it. | Wherever it runs |
| Möbius Connect (us), only with away-from-home access | Your server's name and home address, and the certificate check. | BinaryLane, Australia |
| Cloudflare | Runs the DNS for the server names Connect gives out (*.direct.watchmobius.app) and sits in front of Connect. | Global |
| TMDB (The Movie Database) | Artwork, descriptions, cast and ratings, by title, year and public ids. Uses the server owner's own TMDB key. | Public service |
| fanart.tv (optional) | Logos, banners and disc art, by public ids. Uses the owner's own fanart.tv key. | Public service |
| OpenSubtitles (optional) | Subtitles in the languages you choose: the title, its public ids and a fingerprint of the video file (its size and two small checksums, not its contents). Uses the owner's own OpenSubtitles account. | Public service |
| Let's Encrypt | A free security certificate for your server's away-from-home name. Like every public certificate, the name is listed in public certificate logs. | Public service |
| Wikipedia (Wikimedia) | This week's most-read films and shows, for the Top 10 rows. Nothing is sent but the date. | Public service |
| Wikidata (Wikimedia) | Franchises and In memoriam rows: public facts about films, shows and people, by their public ids. | Public service |
| TVmaze | Air dates and episode order for Marathons and channels, looked up by a show's public TVDB or IMDb id. | Public service |
| IntroDB (introdb.app) | Skip Intro and Skip Credits when your server has no markers, by an episode's public id. | Public service |
| LRCLIB (lrclib.net) | Timed lyrics for Lyrics and Sing-along: the song's artist, title, album and length. | Public service |
| Apple iTunes Search | Film trailers from the iTunes Store, by the film's title and year and your device's country. | Public service |
| Emby Connect (Emby LLC), only if you use it | Signing the app in with an emby.media account or a PIN, to find linked Emby servers. | Emby LLC |
| Apple | App Store, purchases, TestFlight and Top Shelf, under Apple's own privacy policy. | Apple |
How long, and deleting it
Turn off away-from-home access in Möbius Server and it stops checking in; email us and we delete its Connect record and name. Delete the app, or remove a server in Settings, and everything it kept on that device goes with it.
The full policy is at Möbius privacy policy. Ask what we hold about you, correct it or have it deleted at privacy@emgee.dev; we answer within 30 days. The general Privacy page covers your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles.
Contact
Help: Möbius support or support@emgee.dev. Privacy: privacy@emgee.dev. Security: security@emgee.dev.