Is there a way to play sound from any two apps (or more) simultaneously on Android? For example I have Audible reading a book. I'd like to play sound from a relaxation app at the same time. Or from my music collection.
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1First of all can you run those two apps at same time? I'm not quite sure but I think sometimes when I listen to music and play game it plays both sounds, but I'm probably wrong and only one sound source is allowed at one time.– Једноруки КрстивојеCommented Oct 17, 2017 at 1:14
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The answers in this question worked for me. I used Rocket Music Player. android.stackexchange.com/questions/125250/…– Aaron SmithCommented Jul 22, 2021 at 0:26
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2 Answers
i have the similar situation on my note9 running android 10 kernel version 4.9.118* and using OneUI 2.5. I noticed that my phone was doing this when I was listening to spotify and then i launched another music app expecting the spotify to stop but both keep playing music. It seems any music or audio app can multiplay with other music/audio app simultaneously.
In Android, there are some things called tasks and processes. Whenever an app is opened, processes are started, threads are created, and these run and together make a task. Android system is multi-tasking, no doubt on that, because you can switch from one app to another through the tabs option in your phone.
But, Android system runs only one main task. When you open an app, and you're currently using it, then it becomes the main process at that point of time. Other apps, which may be open, continue to run in background, but only one app and its processes run in foreground.
Playing music, that is, accessing the speaker, can be done by foreground processes only. If you start a music to be played by some media player, and press the home button, then also the music keeps playing. You might think that the music is playing in background, but that is not the case. In this case, even if you've come to home screen, then also the app processes are running in foreground, although you're not able to see the app window.
If you try to open any app at that moment, immediately the media player app processes become background, and hence the music is stopped.
In Android, threads and tasks cam be killed by pressing the back button.
Two main processes cannot work in foreground together. Many processes may run in background, but only one foreground main process.
In this context, you cannot play sound from two different apps together.
answered Oct 17, 2017 at 13:40
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2This isn't true at all! Start some music playing. Now open your email app. The music keeps playing, even though another app is in the foreground. I even listen to podcasts while playing a game with the sound on - and both the podcast app and the game are capable of playing sound at the same time.– JoshCommented Mar 21, 2018 at 17:03
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Sorry to say, but in my phone, this never happens. One sound always stops when the other starts, except notification sounds. Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 18:31
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Huh. Must depend on the model, I guess. Android phones do come in a pretty wide range of feature sets.– JoshCommented Mar 28, 2018 at 4:36
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1@WrichikBasu Where is your source? You're so off here, go and read about intents, context, activities, services, tasks and then just keep going until you can correct yourself, like seriously - this answer is unhelpful Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 16:15