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An update on Android's audio latency

android-developers.googleblog.com

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Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#61

Post by Grazester »

kuschku wrote: post #59
zachruss92 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a valid point, but it’s hard to place the blame on Google/Android. I think the challenge is less of Android itself but a refusal of the OEMs to support newer OS versions. This makes business sense, but sucks for consumers. I think Google is doing a better job with their Pixel devices. I honestly hope they try to lead the Android industry more with them.

Every Pixel phone so far stopped getting updates after 2 years.

Not true actually. Google now updates these devices for 3 years now and not just security updates

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#63

Post by philsnow »

jefftk wrote: post #17

This is way better than it used to be (I measured half a second latency in 2012: https://www.jefftk.com/p/android-sound-synthesis-and-latency ) but it is still too high to let you use an Android device as a musical instrument. This is something iPhones have always been able to do, and one of my biggest disappointments with Android. (Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)

The article and all the responses here express "latency" as a simple scalar number. Is it actually more like a histogram of values than a scalar, and the marketing number is the 90th %ile of that histogram?

My impression is that Android has more latency variance than iOS. If that's true then it's important to be clear what the reported numbers represent.

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#65

Post by thefourthchime »

Robotbeat wrote: post #45

Responsiveness and low input-to-result latency was why I chose iPhone over android 10 years ago even though I prefer a more open environment like android. Sounds like things haven’t changed a whole lot on that front. Sometimes I wonder if these increased levels of abstraction and even digitization itself (or at least the Internet-ization of things) is a mistake for human-machine interface. Watching drone racing pilot…

What's funny is that this “open” environment of android now is nearly the opposite.

With any android device openly spying on you while locking down all the open source apps you might want to install.

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#66

Post by Godel_unicode »

philsnow wrote: post #63
jefftk wrote: post #17

This is way better than it used to be (I measured half a second latency in 2012: https://www.jefftk.com/p/android-sound-synthesis-and-latency ) but it is still too high to let you use an Android device as a musical instrument. This is something iPhones have always been able to do, and one of my biggest disappointments with Android. (Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)

The article and all the responses here express "latency" as a simple scalar number. Is it actually more like a histogram of values than a scalar, and the marketing number is the 90th %ile of that histogram? My impression is that Android has more latency variance than iOS. If that's true then it's important to be clear what the reported numbers represent.

Latency variance is known as jitter. What gives you the impression that it would be high on Android?

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#67

Post by idonotknowwhy »

thefourthchime wrote: post #65
Robotbeat wrote: post #45

Responsiveness and low input-to-result latency was why I chose iPhone over android 10 years ago even though I prefer a more open environment like android. Sounds like things haven’t changed a whole lot on that front. Sometimes I wonder if these increased levels of abstraction and even digitization itself (or at least the Internet-ization of things) is a mistake for human-machine interface. Watching drone racing pilot…

What's funny is that this “open” environment of android now is nearly the opposite. With any android device openly spying on you while locking down all the open source apps you might want to install.

It's spying on me, but I can still install whatever i want. Same as Windows 10.

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#68

Post by aeontech »

Blueskytech wrote: post #60

If android can get its audio latency act together there is some real opportunity here to steal market share from Apple. Since the release of the 2nd iPad Pro Apple has forced audio processing onto the slower low power CPU core, this means that for the last three years I can run all my iOS synth applications at 96kHZ with a low buffer sample size without any drop outs on my first gen iPad Pro and an iPad mini 3. What…

Is there more details about this published somewhere? I’m very curious to learn more

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#69

Post by andrepd »

thefourthchime wrote: post #65
Robotbeat wrote: post #45

Responsiveness and low input-to-result latency was why I chose iPhone over android 10 years ago even though I prefer a more open environment like android. Sounds like things haven’t changed a whole lot on that front. Sometimes I wonder if these increased levels of abstraction and even digitization itself (or at least the Internet-ization of things) is a mistake for human-machine interface. Watching drone racing pilot…

What's funny is that this “open” environment of android now is nearly the opposite. With any android device openly spying on you while locking down all the open source apps you might want to install.

What does this mean? I can choose not to install google services in my phone, and use an open app store like F-Droid.

Not that it counts for much in the grand scheme of things, seeing as 99% of users will never install a custom rom.

Re: An update on Android's audio latency

#70

Post by [deleted] »

thomasahle wrote: post #56
kall wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This data [0] doesn't have the latest models, and it's meassuring latency internaly, not "touch-to-sound". The ones they tested average around 7-8ms. I've heard of Edit: I've been thinking about this and a touch-to-tone latency below 10ms seems imposible, even with the 120hz digitizer on newer iPhones. I would be very interested in seeing some experimental data as well. [0] https://juce.com/discover/stories/Mobile%20…

The best I could find was https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/71301 which suggests a 32ms touch latency. I think that might include some processing, but it doesn't seem much better than the 20ms latency in Android mentioned in the article. The audio processing latency seems to be single digit on both systems. In any case, I don't think these differences are big enough to argue that "Android can't be used for in…

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