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Two 'background audio' stories March 2013 - October 2013
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Latest YouTube update hints at upcoming background audio support

Avatar for Chance Miller Oct 23 2013 - 2:23 pm PT
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While from the outside, the most recent YouTube update looked rather minor, Android Police has done some deep digging and discovered a couple of very interesting tidbits regarding future features coming to the app. First off, the APK file makes several hints at background audio support. This means that you will be able to start a video within the YouTube app and navigate to another app and not have your content disrupted. Currently, leaving the YouTube app makes your video automatically pause. Android Police notes that the feature should work when the device’s screen is off, as well.

Within the YouTube app now, the settings option for background audio is hidden, but Android Police managed to reveal the options for a very brief period of time. Regarding the upcoming offline feature, the APK teardown also revealed some of the dialogue messages users will be presented with, though they’re all pretty standard.

Background audio support will be huge for listening to music via YouTube, in addition to other things, such as podcasts and videos. It’s unclear when the feature will launch, but between this and offline video support, YouTube for Android is about to get a lot more useful.
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Chrome for Android updated with background audio and performance enhancements

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Mar 8 2013 - 2:10 pm PT
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256px-google_chrome_2011_computer_icon-svgGoogle updated its Chrome for Android app today with a number of performance enhancements including improved scrolling, better responsiveness for pinch-zooming, and improvements to “interactive pages thanks to the latest version of the V8 javascript engine.” Google is also including background audio support in this release and “expanded support HTML5 features”:

What’s in this version:

Updates in this version of Chrome for Android include improved text font clarity and stability fixes in addition to:
1. Improved scrolling performance
2. Increased responsiveness to pinch-zooming on pages
3. Faster interactive pages thanks to the latest version of the V8 javascript engine
4. Audio now continues to play while Chrome is in the background. Audio playing in Chrome will now pause when the phone is in use. This requires an additional permission
5. Expanded support for HTML5 features