BBC iPlayer Radio Android app: Works for you?

Works fine for me.

Which Android phone do you have, and which version of the software is it running?

Hi Matt,

Phone is a Viewsonic V350 with Android 2.3.7, which I use because it takes two sim cards that I need

That’s a niche phone, running an older version of Android, i’m no surprised that it (and other apps) won’t work with it.

Well, so much for reverse engineering then eh?

Actually everything else that I use on it is fine, including satnav and thank heavens for the xiaa player

You’ll be needing UK Radio Player App instead, which will get you most of the BBC stuff, and more besides, and does work with older versions of Android. Only downside is it uses a lot of memory.

Thanks Phil

I actually use XiiaLive which I find works perfectly as a player and my pc if I miss something and need the iPlayer.

I still think that it’s a shame that the BBC can’t manage to reverse engineer.

The techy guy from Iplayer was on Feedback a few weeks ago and he was explaining that the BBC had some significant problems in getting IPlayer Radio to work with Android devices and as a result they had specifically consentrated there efforts in making it work for the most recent versions, Icecream Sandwich and jellybean. He did apologise to those who had older devices and software be he added that there were limited financial resources.

The BBC iPlayer Radio app is only for Android 4.0 and over. The audio stuff under the hood is much better with 4.0, rather than the earlier 2.x versions of Android; and the app itself uses the 4.0 user interface design patterns too.

For the techy, the BBC’s Android app uses HLS – a form of streaming which is only supported for Android 4.0 devices. (And a form of streaming that a recent Samsung firmware update broke; which is why some Samsung devices aren’t working with it.)

I’m glad James has come forward and explained the techy stuff I remember reading, but couldn’t recall.

There are of course many people, like myself, who are using a generation or two older phones (I’m still, just, in my 24 month contract with my Android 2 device). It would be “useful” if the beeb pointed users of such devices to the likes of “Tune In” or “Radio Player” – but it’s a tricky call to do such a thing.

We did buy some cheap “name you’ve never heard of out of China” tablets from a well known website before Christmas for family members running Andriod 4. It might be an interesting time to “get hold” of one to play compare and contrast the BBC iPlayer Radio app and the Radio Player “competition” for “on-demand” audio content.

As I said before…....no reverse engineering

“The BBC are not the first but we do get it right”, or words to that effect.

Seems they failed with this one anyway.