Spaces

A Space is how your Macs, iPads, and iPhones come to trust one another — created in a minute, joined once, remembered. Every device can take part, and you choose how.

What a Space is

Devices join a Space once and then trust each other from that point on. Any member can invite a new device: open the invite screen on a device that’s already in, and scan the QR code (or enter the short code) on the one that’s joining. No per-pair setup, no accounts — trust lives in keys your devices hold themselves.

You can belong to more than one Space (Home, Office, Clubhouse) and switch which one is active. Everything happens on your local network. There is no cloud relay; your music and your library index never leave the house.

On Mac, manage Spaces under Settings → Spaces. On iPhone, Spaces live under Sources (the gear).

Roles

Roles are capabilities, not locked modes:

• Library — holds music files and can serve them to the Space. Turn on library sharing and every other member can browse and play that collection; a shared library appears as its own section, kept distinct from the local one.
• Player — where the sound comes out. Each playing device owns its own queue.
• Remote — browses any library in the Space and controls any player.

A device can do one job, or several at once. A Mac with the collection is often a library and a controller. An iPad by the stereo can be the player. Your phone can be a remote. Or one iPad can hold the files, play them, and control itself.

Playing to another room

The destination picker decides where the sound comes from. Point at another room and what you play goes there; the Live Queue always shows the queue of the selected destination, so reordering, removing, and jumping work the same whether the music is playing on this device or across the house.

While pointed at another room, you can still preview a track from a shared library locally — audition it in your headphones without interrupting what the room is playing.

Tracks from a shared library are downloaded on demand and cached, so repeat plays don’t re-fetch.

Common setups

There is no required topology:

1. Mac library + iPad player — files stay on the Mac; sound comes from the iPad
2. Single device — browse, play, and control on one machine
3. Phone remote — leave library and speakers alone; drive the queue from your pocket

Change the layout when your room or hardware changes. Nothing forces a permanent “server” and “client.”

Good to know

• Devices need to be on the same network. A device serving its library must be awake with Icoustic open — pinned playlists are the exception, and keep playing with the source device off (see Playlists & Ratings).
• Synchronized multi-room audio (the same song in every room at once) is deliberately out of scope.
• Ratings and play counts live on the device that made them.

What’s next

See Features for the product overview, then Adding a Library Folder to put music on a device.