What’s playing?
Neptunus ID identifies electronic music from a short recording: techno and house released between 1990 and 2024. Recognition works even when a track is played faster or slower than the original.
How it works
Four steps, most of them on your phone
-
Record or import
Listen for 15 to 50 seconds through the microphone, or pick an audio file or a video you already have.
-
Your iPhone does the analysis
The audio is decoded on the device, its tempo is measured and normalised, and it is reduced to an acoustic fingerprint — a list of numbers. The sound itself is not sent anywhere.
-
The fingerprint is matched
Only the fingerprint travels to the Neptunus server, where it is compared against the catalogue. A search usually takes a few minutes.
-
The answer waits for you
The search continues after you close the app. The result appears in History, with a notification if you asked for one.
Send the middle, not the intro
Only the first 50 seconds of a file are used. On most records the intro is a bare kick and hats — there is almost nothing unique in it to match against. Aim for a part where the whole track is playing.
Getting good results
What makes a match more likely
-
Record from real speakers
Holding the phone up to a proper system works well. Laptop speakers do not: they lose the bass, and without bass there is very little left to recognise.
-
Give it a clean stretch
Talking over the track, heavy wind or a phone in a pocket all remove detail the fingerprint depends on.
-
Speed is not a problem
A record played faster or slower than the original still matches. The app works out the tempo and normalises it before searching.
-
Not everything is in the catalogue
The catalogue covers techno and house from 1990 to 2024. A track outside that may simply have nothing to match against.
Privacy policy
What Neptunus ID collects
Last updated 4 August 2026.
Audio never reaches our server
Recordings, imported files, videos and file names are processed on your iPhone and are not transmitted to the Neptunus server. What is sent is an acoustic fingerprint derived from the audio: a list of numbers. The original sound cannot be reconstructed from it.
No account, no sign-in
The app does not ask for a name, an email address or any other personal detail. It authenticates itself to the server using Apple’s App Attest, which confirms the app is a genuine, unmodified install and issues a random token for that installation. The token is kept in the iPhone’s Keychain and is not connected to you, your Apple Account or any device identifier.
What the server stores, and for how long
A submitted fingerprint is held only while the search runs and for a short period afterwards so that the result can be collected — currently 30 minutes for the request and one hour for the result. Both are then deleted automatically. Searches are not linked to a person or a profile, and no search log is retained.
Notifications
If you turn notifications on, the app sends the Apple Push Notification device token for your installation together with the search. It is used once, to deliver that one result, and is erased from the record as soon as the notification has been sent or the search expires. No device token is kept between searches. Notifications can be turned off at any time in the app’s settings.
History, saved clips and iCloud
Your search history and the audio clips you choose to keep are stored on your iPhone. If you turn on iCloud sync, they are copied to your own private iCloud database under your Apple Account so they appear on your other devices. That data is held by Apple on your behalf; the developer of Neptunus ID has no access to it. Turning the setting off, or clearing your history in the app, removes the local copies.
No analytics or tracking
The app contains no analytics, no advertising, no third-party tracking SDKs, and does not collect any data used to track you across other apps or websites.
Leaving the app
Choosing to search the web for a result opens Google in your browser. From that point Google’s own privacy policy applies.
Children
Neptunus ID is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, the revised version will be published on this page with a new date.
Questions
Write to inbox@unbrokendub.com.
Support
Something not working?
Email inbox@unbrokendub.com and describe what happened. Mentioning your iPhone model, the iOS version and roughly when the search was made helps a great deal.
-
A search is stuck on “Searching”
Searches are queued and can take several minutes. The app can be closed while one runs; the result appears in History. If a search does not finish within about an hour, please report it.
-
No match was found
Try a section from the middle of the track, recorded from proper speakers. If it still finds nothing, the release may not be in the catalogue.
-
Notifications are not arriving
Check that notifications are allowed for Neptunus ID in iOS Settings and that the switch inside the app is on.