GNOME Shell Extension · Version 51.0.0
Dropbeat feels at home in the GNOME shell while also looking sleek and modern. A fullscreen pop-up featuring the playing track and album art is also one click away.
Requires ImageMagick · Works with Firefox, Spotify, VLC, and other MPRIS players
Shows the album art on a blurred background, inspired by Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Click the album art to show a fullscreen splash.
Dropbeat works with MPRIS, so it should work with any Linux media player.
Fullscreen view
Dropbeat builds the background from the current artwork, keeps the cover square in the center, and updates the view when the track changes.
Dropbeat supports these GNOME Shell versions:
Dropbeat is intentionally small and puts most image processing work into ImageMagick for stability and simplicity. I use it to crop awkward cover sizes and create the blurred fullscreen background. First run explains how to install it on common distributions if you don't already have it.
Your player needs to expose the standard Linux media-player interface. If GNOME already picks it up in the notifications menu, this extension will too.
I do not collect telemetry. Dropbeat only makes a request when a player supplies an HTTP or HTTPS cover URL and remote cover fetching is enabled. You can turn that off in Preferences; local artwork and processing stay on your machine.
Dropbeat does not currently include shuffle, repeat, or volume controls. It is centered on artwork, track information, seeking, and previous, play/pause, and next.
Dropbeat shows one active player. It does not have a manual player picker yet, but it will move to another available player when the current one closes.
Dropbeat is a TypeScript app that uses Clutter and GTK. The card uses MPRIS and D-Bus to connect it to the player, and the fullscreen display starts a GTK4 window as a separate GJS process.
I write these when an update changes something worth explaining.
v51 adds a seekable progress bar, more appearance and fullscreen controls, and GNOME 46–51 support.
Read announcementGNOME 50 support, a fullscreen now-playing view, control over remote album-art downloads, and smoother track changes.
Read announcementInstall Dropbeat from GNOME Extensions, or look through the source before adding it to your desktop.
