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Finally, direct streaming from Android!

Heckyman

Heckyman

pfm Member
On iOS it’s possible to stream audio from any app to most streamers using Apple’s Airplay protocol. It’s really handy for listening to say, BBC Sounds or even YouTube.

On Android, the only option I'm aware of are apps like Bubble UnPnP (Qobuz, Tidal), Spotify Connect and some 3rd party apps bundled with streamers (also tending to support only Qobuz and Tidal).

However, IF you are prepared to root your phone (!) you can use an app called AirAudio to stream any audio on your device via the DLNA, Airplay or Chromecast protocols. 

I finally took the plunge on rooting my phone and am pleased to report that the app works pretty well. On my Allo RPi based streamer, streaming via DLNA works well on Moode (but oddly suffers from dropouts on Roipeee XL). Airplay streaming works well in Roipeee XL. I can even stream Apple Music now from Android via DLNA!

Granted, this will not be for everyone, but if streaming is for you more of a discovery / secondary source and you’re on Android rather than iOS, it might be worth looking into.
 
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I think I had something like airplay on my Samsung 5 years ago, would certainly beam music to my RPi squeezebox (which has an Airplay type facility), used it once or twice, but can't recall what it was called. Not sure if I've got it on my newer phone, which I think is a Samsung A10.
 
...nice one, it would be interesting to know if there are any current options that don't require root...
 
For sure, it's not a bright idea to be rooting any phone with sensitive data on it and if you mess up you may also brick your phone ;-)

Nice app list, but those apps seem to just access files from somewhere else (e.g. local storage, NAS, Cloud storage, Qobuz/Tidal) and stream them over the network to a receiver. That's great if it's all you want, but my use case is a bit different.

While I do use Qobuz, I also listen to other services such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, BBC Sounds/iPlayer, Spotify, YouTube etc. With these services, the native app or a web browser is the only way to access the content.

That's why I prefer to be able to send ANY audio playing on my phone to my hifi with a single click. This is trivial with iOS/Airplay, but not with Android. Hence the above experiment.
 
Perhaps I am misunderstanding what you are trying to do.

You can do all of the above with uprooted android Twonky into any AirPlay device. Bubbleupnp can also integrate with airplay. You select the play out device from within the app, by clicking 'devices' or similar.
 
Sorry if I wasn't clear. Say I have Apple Music on my Android phone. Is it possible to stream the AM content to my hifi using Twonky, Bubble UnPnP etc.? I've only ever managed it with Qobuz/Tidal or with iOS/Airplay.

When you stream with Airaudio, you're not in the Airaudio app per se. You play from the native app (e.g. Apple Music) and Airaudio just detects that audio is playing. It then pops up on the notification / lock screen asking if you would like to stream your audio to another available network receiver.
 
Just an update in case anyone finds this useful, the above method is in case you want to grab any audio stream playing natively on your Android phone and stream it to an RPi endpoint.

It all works as described above BUT I then decided to try Squeezeserver (LMS) on my i9 iMac and PiCorePlayer on the RPi. WOW, significantly better sound quality, very surprised at the magnitude of the improvement. Even Spotify (via the Spotty LMS plugin, for me a big plus point of LMS over Roon) now easily beats my previous best streaming source of Qobuz/local files played through Moode/RoipeeeXL.

The downsides are:
- requires computer/server to be running somewhere (exactly what I was hoping to avoid!)
- content limitations
- clunky control apps (but thank God for Spotify Connect and Spotty – hope Spotify never pull the plug on open source developers)

Still, I will be keeping LMS / PiCorePlayer from now on and just use Moode to pop in when I'm away so that family members can still operate the hifi.
 
Heckyman said:
The downsides are:
- requires computer/server to be running somewhere (exactly what I was hoping to avoid!)
- content limitations
- clunky control apps (but thank God for Spotify Connect and Spotty – hope Spotify never pull the plug on open source developers)
Click to expand...

You can run LMS directly on the rPi with piCorePlayer so no need for another computer to be on all the time if you don't want to.

I'm using Orange Squeeze as an Android control app with mine, worth a try if you haven't already, not what I'd call clunky but, of course, YMMV
 
Thanks for the tips. I suppose the SQ of LMS+PiCorePlayer would be worse than running LMS on a separate computer – did you ever compare? For the moment, Moode resides on a second SD card and is still very nice when I need a standalone RPi server/streamer, very simple to set up and use with plenty of options.

By clunky, I just meant that I'm missing a Spotify / Apple Music / Roon -like experience – we are spoiled these days! They're otherwise OK. I have Squeezepad on the iPad and Squeeezer on Android.

EDIT: I did just notice that PiCorePlayer can also run an Airplay receiver, so in fact I can use my hack in the OP and play from any app.
 
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Heckyman said:
… I suppose the SQ of LMS+PiCorePlayer would be worse than running LMS on a separate computer – did you ever compare? …
Click to expand...
I ran integrated LMS on my piCorePlayer streamer for eighteen months or so, then separate LMS on another R.Pi for the last three. I did not notice any difference, although I was not expecting any and didn't explicitly listen.
 
Anyway, piCorePlayer is also working fine as an Airplay receiver so no need to try running LMS on the Pi after all.

BTW, if you don't hear upstream changes on your system and you're happy with the music coming out of your speakers, good for you!
 
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