If you searched for "forScore for Android", here is the short answer: there isn't one. forScore runs on iPad, iPhone, Mac and Vision Pro. Its own site lists those four and nothing else, and the App Store listing asks for iOS 18 or newer. No Play Store listing, no Windows version, and as far as I can find, no announcement of either.
That leaves a lot of people with a question. forScore is one of the most used music apps on the iPad, so a bandmate recommends it, you open the Play Store on your Samsung tablet, and it is not there. This post is about what to do next. It depends on one thing: what your songs look like.
Why there is no forScore for Android
I play from chord charts, not PDFs, so I've never used forScore myself. I don't know the developer's reasons for skipping Android and I won't guess at them. What I can see from the outside is what the app is built around: PDFs you annotate with an Apple Pencil, one purchase that installs on your iPad, iPhone and Mac, and page turns controlled by Bluetooth pedals or MIDI. All of that is Apple's platform, deeply. Bringing it to Android would be a second app, not a port, and nothing on forScore's site suggests that is coming.
So the practical advice is the same as for OnSong on Android: don't wait for it. Pick something that runs on the device you have.
First question: are your songs PDFs or chord charts?
This decides everything, so answer it before you install anything.
forScore is a PDF reader for musicians. You load scanned scores, lead sheets or exported notation, you mark them up with a pencil, you build setlists out of them, and a pedal turns the pages. The chords on the page are whatever was printed there. If you need the song in another key, you need another PDF.
A chord chart is different: lyrics with the chords above them, or in brackets, stored as text. Text can be transposed, resized, reformatted and searched. Most singers, guitarists and keyboard players in cover bands and worship teams play from chord charts, not from notation.
If your library is PDFs, you want a PDF reader that runs on Android. If your library is chord charts, or you are about to type it up, you want a chord chart app. These are two different replacements, and I will be upfront that I build the second kind.
If your library is PDFs: MobileSheets
The name that comes up in every forum thread about forScore on Android is MobileSheets. I don't use it myself, so I will stick to what its site says: it runs on macOS, iOS, Android and Windows, it groups scores into setlists, it has annotation tools with layers and stylus drawing, and it connects to a Bluetooth pedal to turn pages. Google Play has a separate trial app to test before buying, and the licenses sold on its own site are per device.
If you have years of annotated PDFs and an Android tablet, that is the closest thing to what you were looking for. Install the trial, load a few scores, and see whether the markings and the page turns feel right to you.
If your songs are chord charts: Fretlist
Fretlist is a chord chart app that runs in the browser, which is why it runs on Android at all. Open it in Chrome, add it to your home screen, and it opens full screen like any other app. Once your songs have synced, it works without a connection. The same account opens on an iPad, a Windows laptop or a Mac, with the same songs.
What it does with a chord chart on Android:
- Transpose and capo. Change the key or set a capo and every chord in the chart follows. The setting is saved per song and synced, so the tablet shows what you set on the laptop.
- Setlists. Songs in sets, in the order you play them, with the key and capo for each.
- Play Mode. A full-screen stage view with auto-scroll, a metronome, section navigation and a wake lock so the screen stays on. Dark mode included.
- Bluetooth page turners. Most pedals send PageUp and PageDown, and Play Mode picks those up without any setup.
- Bulk import. ChordPro files, Word documents and text-based PDFs, plus OnSong and SongbookPro backups if you are coming from one of those (Alan moved two bands over from SongbookPro).
And what it does not do, since that matters more here: Fretlist is not a PDF reader. It does not show a PDF as a page, and it has no pencil annotation. A text-based PDF of a chord chart imports as text, one song per file, and the chords can land a little off their word on a messy layout. A scanned PDF does not import at all. If your whole library is PDFs, that is not a bulk move, and MobileSheets above is the better answer.
If your songs are chord charts, or you are ready to type them up, the install takes a minute:
- Open fretlist.com in Chrome on your Android phone or tablet and sign in.
- Tap the ⋮ menu, then Install app (it may read Add to Home screen).
- Confirm with Install. A Fretlist icon lands on your home screen.
The steps for every device are in How to install the Fretlist app, and the page about Fretlist on Android lists which of the well-known chord chart apps run on Android at all.
Try it on one of your own songs: open Fretlist, paste a chord chart, set its capo, and open Play Mode. Free during Early Access.
When forScore is still the right call
If your music is notation, or scanned scores you have marked up for years, and you already own an iPad, forScore is the right tool and nothing on this page replaces it. One purchase that installs on your iPad, iPhone and Mac (with Pro as an optional extra) is also hard to argue with. The question only comes up when the device is not Apple, and then the answer is the one above: a PDF reader that runs on Android for PDFs, a chord chart app for chord charts.
For how the two kinds of app compare on the iPad itself, I wrote up OnSong vs forScore, which is the same split from the other side.
If you play from chord charts on an Android tablet, open Fretlist in Chrome, add it to your home screen and bring one setlist over for the next rehearsal. Free during Early Access.
Related reading: