I appreciate the work being done on the audio downloader of SAB. Due to the civil war in My., the internet has become increasingly unavailable. We have been distributing apps with the audio included in the assets so people can get the app from the playstore in rare places with internet, then share it to other phones.
If the SAB audio downloader could be set to download all the audio files when online, then this would allow a single smaller app without the audio to be distributed. Even though the audio would not transfer when copying the app phone to phone, eventually when the internet does improve if the phone with the app with this setup connects it would then download the audio files.
We have tried distributing the app by USB Flash drive, but the process of changing the settings on the phone to access the USB drive proved too difficult for our users. SD cards may be an option, but access to our user audience is limited due to the conflict.
Richard M has replied to that request Jun 2023
"Yes, a Downloads Manager (which will allow users to download all the audio files for a book) is on the development plan for the coming year.
It will definitely offer the download of one book at a time. We will look into the possibility of selecting multiple books for download. A whole NT or OT of audio would mean a very large download!
I am so thankful for these enhancements to the SAB apps.
Most users would prefer a seemless playback experience without having to take extra steps (clicks). An option setting in SAB that would start the download automatically without user action would provide the best user experience. I hope this option can be included. The download manager should retry if the internet connection goes down, so if all the audio is not downloaded upon first use, the next time the app is on with and the phone is connected the download manager will resume downloading (all without any user operation).
I appreciate what Roger is trying to accomplish. I agree, anytime a user has to take initiative to do something, only a small minority will do it.
At the same time, I think automatically downloading many MB or potentially more than a GB over data without asking the user could be problematic for two reasons:
Data plans are metered and sometimes costly.
Constantly trying to download in the background would be hard on the battery and possibly system resources. I can imagine a common scenario in which someone has zero data connection (or just enough to “tease” the phone) at home and in their fields, and they only go into town for a few hours once a week.) I’m not an expert, but I imagine a smart media downloader would need to keep track of which locations don’t work so that it’s not always trying to download in the same dead-zone places. Sounds complicated, and would require location permissions.
I can think of a middle ground:
The first time (or few times) the app is opened, a pop-up could appear saying, “Would you like to download all the [total file size] of audio for this app, using data? (You can keep using the app and other apps while downloading.)”