Skipper

What it does

• Jump by any amount. 10 s, 30 s, 5 min, 1:30. Pick a preset or type one, hold to keep going.
• Scrub to an exact point on a progress bar.
• Play and pause.
• Fullscreen on and off, including web players in Chrome and Brave.
• Several screens. Pair a phone and a browser and switch between them.

It works with YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, Twitch, VLC and anything else that plays video, because it doesn't talk to the apps. It talks to the device, and the device acts on whatever is in front.

How it works

Home Wi-Fi hiccups, so Skipper never relies on one connection. It keeps up to six open at the same time (local Wi-Fi, WebRTC peer-to-peer, WebSocket and HTTP through your relay server, MQTT, Bluetooth) and sends each command over the best one alive. When one drops, the next is already connected.

Every command is signed with a key derived from a pairing code only your devices know. A relay server or MQTT broker can pass messages along, but it can't forge a command or replay an old one.

Install

1. Download

   From the latest release:

   • relay-controller-<version>.apk on the phone you'll hold
   • relay-receiver-<version>.apk on the Android phone that plays video

   Android asks you to allow installs from your browser or file manager. That's expected for apps outside the Play Store.

   iPhone as the remote: in AltStore or SideStore, go to Browse → Sources → + and add https://sandoramix.github.io/slop-remote-relay/altstore.json.

2. Set up Skipper Screen

   Open it on the phone that plays video, tap Salva e riavvia, and a QR code appears. Then work through the permission list on the same screen:

   • Notification access: finds the playing video and seeks to the exact second.
   • Accessibility: for fullscreen. It reads the screen only to find the fullscreen button and never records or sends it.
   • Battery optimisation and autostart: skip these and the screen stops listening overnight.

   On Android 13+ Accessibility may be greyed out for sideloaded apps. Open App info → ⋮ → Allow restricted settings first.

   

   

3. Pair the remote

   Open Skipper on the phone in your hand and scan the QR code, or type the same pairing code. The remote shows which connection it's using, for example Wi-Fi locale · 6 ms.

4. Add a browser optional

   Install Skipper for Chrome, click its icon and follow the three steps: relay address, pairing code, scan the QR code with your phone.

   

   Not in the store yet? Download relay-extension-<version>.zip, unzip it into a folder you'll keep, open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode and click Load unpacked.

   A browser is reachable only over the internet, so it needs a relay server (below) or MQTT.

Away from home: the relay server

On the same Wi-Fi nothing else is needed. To use the remote from elsewhere, or to control a browser, run the small relay server somewhere both devices can reach:

docker run -d --name relay -p 8080:8080 ghcr.io/sandoramix/slop-remote-relay-server:latest

Put it behind HTTPS (for example with Caddy) and enter wss://your.domain in each app. The server sees only an anonymous room id. It never learns your pairing code and stores nothing.