App enables radio listeners to stream stations live, as well as accessing podcasts and on-demand shows.

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

When the BBC launched its iPlayer Radio app for iOS in October 2012, it promised that "Android will come soon". Six months later, the app has arrived on the Google Play store.

As on iOS, the Android version is free to download and use, providing live streaming radio from the BBC's stations, a programme guide, and access to on-demand shows from the last seven days. Podcasts, video clips and an alarm-clock function are also included.

The new app will shortly also be available from Amazon's Android Appstore, including support for that company's Kindle Fire HD tablet.

"This app has all the features of the iOS app as well as some improvements that, as an Android user myself, I think make it even better," blogs executive producer for mobile James Simcock.

Those differences include navigational tweaks – such as swiping sideways to browse available shows from the currently-selected radio station, rather than popping up a carousel. The new app also supports Android's notifications panel, and can share programme URLs, artist and track names more easily with other applications.

Data from usage of the iOS iPlayer Radio app, as well as visitor data from its Android-accessible mobile website and other BBC native apps on Android, influenced the development of the new Android app.

That included the decision to use the HTTP Live Streaming protocol (HLS for short) for audio streams, rather than Adobe's Flash. The app requires users to be running Android 4.0 or later on their devices.

"On average around 80% of installs of current BBC products are on Ice Cream Sandwich (version 4.0) and above," writes Simcock, although he adds that some owners of the Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone on UK networks EE, Vodafone and Three may encounter problems with the HLS streams.

"We expect these networks to roll out a fix in the next month," he writes, noting that O2 has already patched the bug causing these problems.

The BBC has faced criticism from Android owners in the past, when apps and/or features have been released on iOS first – for example, when it started allowing users of the main iPlayer app on iOS to download TV shows for offline viewing in September 2012.

However, the Corporation has also stressed its commitment to Android, and been very open about the technical reasons why new apps and features sometimes take longer to reach Google's platform.

"I want to reassure you that Android is an important platform for us," blogged iPlayer executive product manager Chris Yanda in September 2012, in response to the offline-viewing criticism. Finding a replacement for Flash that would "meet the security obligations we had agreed with our rights holders" was the main cause in that case.

iPlayer's radio features are increasingly popular across all platforms. The BBC's monthly performance pack for March 2013 showed 72m requests for radio programmes, up 7% month-on-month, with 83% of that live listening.

Of those 72m requests in March, 10% came from mobile devices, while 4% came from tablets.