Chronal vs MagicBPM

Chronal is an Android metronome and tuner app for beginner and advanced musicians. Its timing tools include beat and subdivision visualization, tap tempo, custom time signatures, and an editor for creating rhythms. Two synchronized metronomes support polyrhythms, and conductor mode combines metronome and tuner functions. The app includes seven sound packs and can play audio files at custom tempos. A fullscreen mode uses large visuals intended to be visible from a distance. The tuner supports transposition for any instrument and tuning to a custom frequency. It can detect BPM from percussion through the microphone in real time, and provides an A4 reference tone with adjustable frequency. Chronal is ad-free, open source, and funded by donations. It is available through F-Droid and Google Play, with source code on GitHub. The listed F-Droid version requires Android 6.0 or newer. F-Droid lists microphone permission for use while the app is in use, while Google Play reports that the developer declares no data collection or sharing. Chronal is free; the product pages provide no stated support channel.

MagicBPM listens through a microphone to measure music tempo in real time, with a metronome and song identification. Its BPM readout updates as music plays and shows a confidence indicator as the reading settles; a scrolling tempogram displays tempo changes over time. The metronome supports up to 300 BPM, eight time signatures, accented downbeats, and eighth-note, triplet and sixteenth-note subdivisions. It can listen while music plays aloud from services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Deezer. Tempo analysis runs on-device, and microphone audio is not recorded or uploaded. Song identification sends an acoustic fingerprint to Apple’s Shazam service, requires internet access, and is disabled on CarPlay and Bluetooth hands-free routes. The app does not import audio files: users measure microphone-captured sound or tap the beat. Apps are listed for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android, with an Apple Watch metronome. The core app is free; iPhone and Android versions show ads, while the Mac app is ad-free.