Game streaming for Android handhelds that understands the host.
Nova is an Android client for Polaris and standard Moonlight-compatible hosts. With Polaris it turns a basic app grid into a controller-first Library, explains each launch before it happens, and keeps live session controls close while you play.
Important
Nova is an Android app today. Android handhelds, phones, and Android TV are the supported client boundary; Nova is not a Windows, macOS, iOS, or native Linux client.
| Normal compatible client | Nova with Polaris |
|---|---|
| Pairs, browses apps, launches, and streams | Adds a host-backed Library with art, sources, and launch health |
| Starts the host's configured app path | Shows Private Stream and other available display choices before launch |
| Treats a running session as a generic state | Distinguishes active, resumable, watchable, and owner-aware sessions |
| Offers basic disconnect or quit actions | Separates safe disconnect from ending the host session |
| Shows client-side stream statistics | Adds server-backed runtime truth, Doctor, tuning provenance, and NovaHUD |
Standard Moonlight-compatible hosts remain useful; Polaris supplies the richer metadata and controls.
Stage view puts the selected title into its landscape artwork while keeping the row controller-readable. Control Ultimate Edition leads the Aurora showcase; the website gallery compares the same screen in Portable Chrome, Console OLED, Miami Nebula, High Contrast, and Material You.
Compare every theme in the website gallery
Play Setup describes what will happen for this title: where it runs, the client resolution, tuning policy, and Steam launch behavior. A session-scoped choice does not silently rewrite the host default.
During a stream, Command Center brings session health, Doctor guidance, tuning, NovaHUD, input helpers, safe disconnect, and protected end-session actions into a controller-first drawer.
Every capture above and across papi-ux.com comes from the tagged public release; the pixel-level provenance manifest ships with the site.
With a standard Moonlight-compatible host, Nova supports the familiar pairing, Wake-on-LAN, app browsing, launch, input, and streaming path.
With Polaris, Nova additionally understands the host Library, display-mode catalog, session owner, watch and resume behavior, per-session launch choices, Polaris Sync, server-backed stream health, Doctor actions, and tuning state. Those enhanced surfaces require compatible Polaris metadata; Nova falls back to the standard path when it is not present.
- Install the public APK that matches the Android device.
- Open Servers, discover or add the host, and pair.
- Open the Library, review a title, and launch.
- During play, open Command Center with Guide/Mode + Start/Menu. Guide/Mode + Y shows or cycles NovaHUD.
| Architecture | Direct download | Typical devices |
|---|---|---|
| ARM64 | Nova-Android-arm64-v8a.apk | Most current handhelds, phones, Shield, and ARM64 Android TV |
| ARMv7 | Nova-Android-armeabi-v7a.apk | 32-bit ARM Android TV devices |
| x86_64 | Nova-Android-x86_64.apk | Android x86_64 devices and emulators |
The quick-start guide covers Obtainium, pairing methods, first-stream controls, and architecture selection.
Nova preserves Android 5.0 / API 21 support, though features and codec behavior depend on the device, Android build, decoder, controller mapping, network, and host. Android handhelds are the primary experience; Android TV and phones are supported with their own navigation constraints. Review the maintained Nova compatibility guide for current device, architecture, codec, HDR, sensor, and host notes.
- Nova documentation · Quick start · Compatibility
- Roadmap · Changelog · Releases
- Issues · Discussions · Source
- Security policy · Contributing
Nova builds on the moonlight-android client lineage. Thanks to the Moonlight community for the foundation Nova grew from.
Nova is built and released by me, with assistance from tools such as OpenAI Codex, Claude, and local models.
I use those tools for documentation polish, release workflow cleanup, store-readiness checks, build/test triage, implementation review, and to compare approaches while debugging. They do not decide what Nova or Polaris are, what features ship, or what releases are published. I review, edit, build, test, and approve the changes before release, and I own the final engineering and trust-boundary decisions.
Contributions are welcome, especially focused fixes, UI polish, docs, translations, and careful feature work. Nova is still a small maintainer-led project, so the easiest pull requests to review are the ones that explain the problem clearly and keep the change scoped. See CONTRIBUTING for the full workflow.
Nova is free and open-source software licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.