Media display and playback have become essential components of the Android app experience. Whether your app integrates images and videos or delivers immersive audio experiences, media enriches user interactions and elevates app engagement.
Android continues to evolve APIs to minimize the complexity of integrating media while making the user experience more integrated and consistent, and this page connects you to resources to both help you get started and level up your app.
Know key Android media APIs and concepts
Android has APIs that work at different levels to allow your app to make the most of the available hardware and software features.
Display images
Loading the highest-quality images efficiently is key to building a smooth user experience in your app. Here are some resources that will help:
- Loading images from local resources
- Loading images from a remote server
- Loading Large Bitmaps Efficiently
- Displaying images in UltraHDR
Playback and stream audio and video
Jetpack Media3 offers advanced features such as seamless media playback, media browsing, and efficient resource management. Learn more:
Level up your app
You'll want your app to support features that meet and surpass user expectations. One way to do that is to support the advanced media features provided by premium devices. Here are some specific ways to help your app stand out:
- Support UltraHDR images and HDR video
- Enable picture-in-picture for video and audio playback
- Implement Cast Connect so users can cast to your native Android TV app
- Use Performance Class to adapt your user experience around device capabilities
See the full guide for features to consider to take your media display and playback experience to the next level and impress your users.