Audio files must be served via HTTPS on Android

Just a post in case anybody else runs into the same issue: audio files downloaded from an external server must be downloaded over HTTPS on Android. Have had an iOS SAB app deployed for quite some time that worked fine over both HTTP and HTTPS (originally downloaded via plain old HTTP to potentially decrease Apple legal documentation requirements for SSL/TLS encryption use in app). However, Android fails to download audio files over HTTP (perpetually downloading with no progress) but has no problems when switch over to HTTPS.

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@teddy Thanks for this practical information.

That’s interesting. We have published several Android apps where the downloads are done over http:// links. It has always worked so far. I would be interested to know on what devices this was tested.

@Friedo, it is a limitation in Android 9 (Pie). It is better to use https.

@richard, there is a way to work-around this if the audio source is only http.

It seems like we should do one of the following:

  1. SAB should warn (or fail to build) if using http
  2. SAB should add the network security configuration

Chris

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@ChrisHubbard, thanks, that’s important to know. So far I tested apps on Android 9 only in emulators and I didn’t see problems. But it’s probably safer to change our links and update the apps.