Which audio format can be recorded and played back by iPhone and Android?

Question

I am designing an app that can record short audio files on iPhone and Android that can be played back on both platforms, as well as hopefully any other smartphone.

Right now I'm using *.caf with the iLBC codec, as I know the iPhone does not encode mp3.

Is there a file format/codec that I should use in this case?

Since direct device-to-device communication is pretty hard to achieve, how about recording in a supported format on the device and then using the server you basically need as middleman anyway to transcode to what the other will support? You can of course also use a non-built-in implementation of ogg vorbis. — Chris Stratton, Feb 25 '11 at 20:10

typo.pl · Answer 1 · 2011-02-22T21:20:00.570

It used to be that there were no common audio encoding formats for Android and iPhone.

iPhone: iPhone audio encoding supported formats

Android: Android supported media formats

But Android 2.3.3 adds support for AMR-WB and AAC: Android Audio Encoder AAC

See Media Framework at Android 2.3.3 API changes

So I believe AAC is your format choice if you want interop between Android and iPhone devices and can handle the Android 2.3.3 limitation.

Otherwise, just pick from the list for widest coverage (AMR-NB on Android) or plan on converting the recorded audio to a suitable format.

A quick check shows that AMR is patented and I assume AAC would have some patent coverage as well. PCM is decodable on iPhone and Android and most cellphones at the expense of larger filesize.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 22 '11 at 21:11

3

All smartphones can play WAV files (even Android as of 2.2). These are known as "Linear PCM" in iOS and "PCM/WAVE" in Android.

answered Feb 22 '11 at 21:11

MusiGenesis

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for that which audio encoder is used for video recording in andorid and iphone? – Hiren Dabhi Jun 19 '12 at 06:56
I don't know. Although I was hired for my current job as an Android developer, I do mostly iOS now. – MusiGenesis Jun 19 '12 at 10:56

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 20 '12 at 17:15

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Try modifying the file type in your ios version file to be .wav and you should be able to listen to this audio file on an Android phone, as well as a Windows operating system.

edited Nov 20 '12 at 17:15

Nathaniel Ford

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answered Jun 02 '11 at 12:22

sanni

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 24 '12 at 06:51

As explained above by typo.pl, the generally compatible format is AMR or WAVE(PCM), but in practice, we prefer a progressive solution:

produce AAC on iOS and Android 2.3.3+, but fallback to produce AMR (WB) on Android pre-2.3.3. Both formats are playable on all platforms.

I guess it's a fairly easy solution for better compatibility and audio quality.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 22 '11 at 21:12

0

You'll find that mp3 has hardware decoding in all recent iOS devices and most Android mobile phones as well (but not cheap tablets, budget phones, etc).

answered Feb 22 '11 at 21:12

Alan Zeino

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But you can't create a file and save to the system with mp3, on iPhone. You can play back, but not save. – Anna Billstrom May 20 '12 at 20:13
You can definitely do that. You write to the file system as if it were any other file. You don't know what you're talking about. – Alan Zeino May 23 '12 at 00:38
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6271184/recording-mp3-on-iphone-by-sdk m4a, yes, mp3, no. – Anna Billstrom May 25 '12 at 04:05
So what you should have said was, "you can play back, not record", which is different from 'save'. – Alan Zeino May 28 '12 at 00:43

Which audio format can be recorded and played back by iPhone and Android?

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