react-native-sound

React Native module for playing sound clips on iOS, Android, and Windows.

Be warned, this software is alpha quality and may have bugs. Test on your own and use at your own risk!

Feature matrix

React-native-sound does not support streaming. See #353 for more info. Of course, we would welcome a PR if someone wants to take this on.

In iOS, the library uses AVAudioPlayer, not AVPlayer.

Feature	iOS	Android	Windows
Load sound from the app bundle	✓	✓	✓
Load sound from other directories	✓	✓	✓
Load sound from the network	✓	✓
Play sound	✓	✓	✓
Playback completion callback	✓	✓	✓
Pause	✓	✓	✓
Resume	✓	✓	✓
Stop	✓	✓	✓
Reset		✓
Release resource	✓	✓	✓
Get duration	✓	✓	✓
Get number of channels	✓
Get/set volume	✓	✓	✓
Get system volume	✓	✓
Set system volume		✓
Get/set pan	✓
Get/set loops	✓	✓	✓
Get/set exact loop count	✓
Get/set current time	✓	✓	✓
Set speed	✓	✓

Installation

First install the npm package from your app directory:

npm install react-native-sound --save

Note: If your react-native version is >= 0.60 then linking is done automatically.

If your react-native version is < 0.60 then link it using:

react-native link react-native-sound

If you encounter this error

undefined is not an object (evaluating 'RNSound.IsAndroid')

you may additionally need to fully clear your build caches for Android. You can do this using

cd android
./gradlew cleanBuildCache

After clearing your build cache, you should execute a new react-native build.

If you still experience issues, know that this is the most common build issue. See #592 and the several issues linked from it for possible resolution. A pull request with improved documentation on this would be welcome!

Manual Installation Notes

Please see the Wiki for these details https://github.com/zmxv/react-native-sound/wiki/Installation

Help with React-Native-Sound

• For react-native-sound developers
• For help using react-native-sound

Demo project

https://github.com/zmxv/react-native-sound-demo

Player

https://github.com/benevbright/react-native-sound-playerview

Basic usage

First you'll need to add audio files to your project.

• Android: Save your sound clip files under the directory android/app/src/main/res/raw. Note that files in this directory must be lowercase and underscored (e.g. my_file_name.mp3) and that subdirectories are not supported by Android.
• iOS: Open Xcode and add your sound files to the project (Right-click the project and select Add Files to [PROJECTNAME])

// Import the react-native-sound module
var Sound = require('react-native-sound');

// Enable playback in silence mode
Sound.setCategory('Playback');

// Load the sound file 'whoosh.mp3' from the app bundle
// See notes below about preloading sounds within initialization code below.
var whoosh = new Sound('whoosh.mp3', Sound.MAIN_BUNDLE, (error) => {
  if (error) {
    console.log('failed to load the sound', error);
    return;
  }
  // loaded successfully
  console.log('duration in seconds: ' + whoosh.getDuration() + 'number of channels: ' + whoosh.getNumberOfChannels());

  // Play the sound with an onEnd callback
  whoosh.play((success) => {
    if (success) {
      console.log('successfully finished playing');
    } else {
      console.log('playback failed due to audio decoding errors');
    }
  });
});

// Reduce the volume by half
whoosh.setVolume(0.5);

// Position the sound to the full right in a stereo field
whoosh.setPan(1);

// Loop indefinitely until stop() is called
whoosh.setNumberOfLoops(-1);

// Get properties of the player instance
console.log('volume: ' + whoosh.getVolume());
console.log('pan: ' + whoosh.getPan());
console.log('loops: ' + whoosh.getNumberOfLoops());

// Seek to a specific point in seconds
whoosh.setCurrentTime(2.5);

// Get the current playback point in seconds
whoosh.getCurrentTime((seconds) => console.log('at ' + seconds));

// Pause the sound
whoosh.pause();

// Stop the sound and rewind to the beginning
whoosh.stop(() => {
  // Note: If you want to play a sound after stopping and rewinding it,
  // it is important to call play() in a callback.
  whoosh.play();
});

// Release the audio player resource
whoosh.release();

Sound.setCategory(category, mixWithOthers?)

Configure how your app interacts with the system audio session before you create Sound instances. Category and routing are applied in native code when each sound is prepared (when the Sound constructor runs).

Sound.setCategory('Playback', true);

• Windows: setCategory is a no-op (native module does not implement it).

Second argument: mixWithOthers

This flag means “prefer to mix with other apps’ audio” versus “prefer to take focused control,” but the exact behavior is platform-specific (see below).

Default in JavaScript: Sound.setCategory is implemented as function (category, mixWithOthers = false). If you omit the second argument, it defaults to false.

Value	Android	iOS
true	Does not call requestAudioFocus when play() runs, so other apps’ audio is less likely to be ducked or paused.	Sets the AVAudioSession category with MixWithOthers and AllowBluetooth.
false	Calls requestAudioFocus on play() (unless category is Effects; see table below).	Sets the AVAudioSession category without those mixing options.

Special case — Effects: On Android, Effects never requests audio focus, regardless of mixWithOthers. On iOS, Effects always uses Ambient with MixWithOthers and AllowBluetooth; the second argument is ignored.

Category names: Android vs iOS

The same string is passed to both platforms, but native code only handles the names each platform defines. If a name is not supported on a platform, Android logs an error and leaves the default stream routing for that player; iOS leaves the session category unchanged for unknown names.

Category	Android	iOS
Playback	MediaPlayer audio stream: STREAM_MUSIC.	AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback.
Ambient	STREAM_NOTIFICATION.	AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient.
SoloAmbient	Not mapped (error log).	AVAudioSessionCategorySoloAmbient.
Record	Not mapped (error log).	AVAudioSessionCategoryRecord.
PlayAndRecord	Not mapped (error log).	AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayAndRecord.
AudioProcessing	Not mapped (error log).	AVAudioSessionCategoryAudioProcessing (iOS only).
MultiRoute	Not mapped (error log).	AVAudioSessionCategoryMultiRoute.
System	STREAM_SYSTEM.	Not mapped (no-op).
Voice	STREAM_VOICE_CALL.	Not mapped (no-op).
Ring	STREAM_RING.	Not mapped (no-op).
Alarm	STREAM_ALARM.	Not mapped (no-op).
Effects	API 21+: CONTENT_TYPE_SONIFICATION with USAGE_GAME (API 28+) or USAGE_MEDIA (API 21–27). Avoids USAGE_ASSISTANCE_SONIFICATION, which often follows notification/accessibility volume (silent when notification sounds are off). Older API: STREAM_MUSIC. Never takes audio focus.	Ambient + MixWithOthers + AllowBluetooth (second argument ignored).

For short UI or game sound effects while music from another app (or your own music player) should keep playing, use Effects (and on other categories use mixWithOthers: true if you want to avoid audio focus on Android).

Notes

• To minimize playback delay, you may want to preload a sound file without calling play() (e.g. var s = new Sound(...);) during app initialization. This also helps avoid a race condition where play() may be called before loading of the sound is complete, which results in no sound but no error because loading is still being processed.
• You can play multiple sound files at the same time (several Sound instances).
  • iOS — other apps’ audio: Sound.setCategory('Ambient') or Sound.setCategory('Effects') alone is enough for typical mixing: Ambient uses AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient (mix-friendly even with the default second argument), and Effects always applies MixWithOthers (the boolean is ignored). Playback is stricter: Sound.setCategory('Playback') sets Playback without MixWithOthers, so other apps’ audio is more likely to duck or stop—use Sound.setCategory('Playback', true) when you want to mix with them. Other categories follow the same pattern as Playback: pass true only when you need those mixing options.
  • Android: Ambient / Playback / most categories still use the second argument for audio focus (default false requests focus on play()). Use true to avoid that, or use Effects, which never requests focus regardless of the boolean.
• You may reuse a Sound instance for multiple playbacks.
• On iOS, the module wraps AVAudioPlayer that supports aac, aiff, mp3, wav etc. The full list of supported formats can be found at https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/MusicAudio/Conceptual/CoreAudioOverview/SupportedAudioFormatsMacOSX/SupportedAudioFormatsMacOSX.html
• On Android, the module wraps android.media.MediaPlayer. The full list of supported formats can be found at https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/media-formats.html
• On Android, the absolute path can start with '/sdcard/'. So, if you want to access a sound called "my_sound.mp3" on Downloads folder, the absolute path will be: '/sdcard/Downloads/my_sound.mp3'.
• You may chain non-getter calls, for example, sound.setVolume(.5).setPan(.5).play().

Audio on React Native

• The State of Audio Libraries in React Native (Oct. 2018)
• react-native-audio-toolkit
• react-native-video (also plays audio)
• Expo Audio SDK
• #media on awesome-react-native

Contributing

Pull requests welcome with bug fixes, documentation improvements, and enhancements.

When making big changes, please open an issue first to discuss.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.