I have just updated an app with audio provided by Faith Comes By Hearing. I’ve noticed that there is no option to stream the audio, but only to download it to the phone. In places where storage is still relatively limited (people still buying 8GB and 16GB phones), but data speeds are usually sufficient for YouTube videos, I am wondering if a streaming option would be good.
I don’t know much about programming at all, but at least with the FCBH-sourced audio, it looks like there is a streaming option built in to the API. Would it be possible to provide the option of ‘Stream’ or ‘Download’?
I understand that downloading the audio is an option, but I don’t see that streaming is, even in the 5 options you listed above.
It still looks to me like every option involves the audio staying on the phone, whether that means the system memory or an SD card. Am I wrong about that?
Yes, you are right, Matt, that audio streaming is not supported yet. It is on the ‘To Do’ list - and it would be good to know if other users would be interested in having this feature. As you say, its usefulness will depend on the data speeds available. FCBH will soon be making smaller (lower bitrate) audio files available on their server (in addition to the current ones), so this is also something that might encourage more people to choose audio streaming.
That sounds really great. I was just thinking as I was using it, “This method of downloading seems a bit foreign to how they are generally using their phones.” And just today I was with a national colleague who was afraid he wouldn’t be able to download the 3.6MB app itself.
I see that this feature is now available in SAB 8.0. (yet to try out )
Audio file streaming
Instead of downloading audio files, they can be streamed directly from the web server.
For each audio source, you can specify whether streaming or downloading or both are options. See the Access Method in the Edit File Source dialog.
If both streaming and downloading are options, the user can choose their preferred access method in the app Settings. The default access method is specified on the Audio > Audio Settings page.
It might be better to put this forward as a separate thread, but I now have 3 File Sources set up: one download only, one stream only, and one download or stream option:
I’ve built the app with each of these (with Access Method set to ‘Stream audio files’), and when I click the play button I inevitably get this message:
Have you found any ways to improve the way SAB dowloads and plays files? The “allow appname to access photos and media on your device” box and the Audio download box really serve no purpose other than to confuse users. I wish they would be eliminated. Other apps I use that play audio do not have such popups.
If you’re referring to the permissions required, I’m not sure if there’s a way around that.
If you’re referring to the streaming feature, it was made available with the 8.0 update.
If you’re interested in how to setup the audio streaming, we did have a discussion on another thread about this. I took that discussion off this thread because it didn’t have to do with a feature request. We discussed some of the less obvious things about setting up the audio streaming.
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