Latency of sound: A classic Android problem
In particular, we talk about the latency of sound or audio. This problem has always been present in Android, and although in recent years it has been reduced considerably (especially from Lollipop), it is still much worse than in iOS. This is the reason why the operating system has a bad reputation among music creators and other professionals in the sound industry, preferring to use iOS to work in case it is necessary because so much latency generates synchronization problems. The audio output latency, defined by the tech giant Google itself, is “the time that elapses between the moment an app generates an audio sample and the reproduction of the sample through a headphone jack or a built-in speaker”. If two years ago we found that this was 100ms or even up to 250ms, in the latest version of Nougat it is reduced to barely 20ms. This is especially noticeable when watching videos or playing games or when making video calls, where the sound comes slightly after the image we are seeing on the screen. The human ear notes as “normal” a latency less than 10ms. From there we started to notice the delay.
In Android 8.0 the latency goes up to 253%
However, as of Android 8.0 Oreo, these improvements have been reversed, and have come to increase the latency up to 250%. It was the Superpowered website that tested latency on a Nexus 6P and a Pixel XL and compared the latency of both terminals with Nougat and Oreo using the Rick’O’Rang app and its latency test.
As we see in the previous image of the results of the tests, the latency is much higher in the latest version of Android. The tech giant Google has not yet commented on why this latency has increased, nor whether it will be fixed in future software updates or not. So, what do you think about this? Simply share your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
