🎵 React Native Sound

🚀 Cross-platform audio playback for React Native — Play sound clips on iOS and Android with full TypeScript support and modern React Native architecture compatibility.

✨ Features

• 🎯 Cross-platform: Works on iOS and Android
• 📱 Modern Architecture: Full support for React Native's New Architecture (TurboModules)
• 🔤 TypeScript: Complete TypeScript definitions included
• 🎛️ Rich Controls: Play, pause, stop, seek, volume, pan, and looping
• 📁 Flexible Loading: Load from app bundle, local files, or network URLs
• 🔄 Multiple Players: Play multiple sounds simultaneously
• ⚡ Optimized: Minimal latency with preloading support
• 🛡️ Reliable: Battle-tested in production apps

📊 Platform Compatibility

📝 Note: This library focuses on audio clips playback, not streaming. For streaming audio, consider react-native-video or other dedicated streaming solutions.

iOS Implementation: Uses AVAudioPlayer for optimal performance and compatibility.

Android Implementation: Uses MediaPlayer with proper audio focus handling.

| Feature | iOS | Android | | ---------------------------- | --- | ------- | | Loading | | Load from app bundle | ✅ | ✅ | | Load from local files | ✅ | ✅ | | Load from network URLs | ✅ | ✅ | | Playback | | Play/Pause/Stop | ✅ | ✅ | | Playback completion callback | ✅ | ✅ | | Resume playback | ✅ | ✅ | | Reset to beginning | ❌ | ✅ | | Audio Control | | Volume control | ✅ | ✅ | | Pan (L/R stereo) | ✅ | ❌ | | Playback speed | ✅ | ✅ | | System Integration | | Get system volume | ✅ | ✅ | | Set system volume | ❌ | ✅ | | Advanced Features | | Loop control | ✅ | ✅ | | Exact loop count | ✅ | ❌ | | Seek to time position | ✅ | ✅ | | Get current position | ✅ | ✅ | | Get duration | ✅ | ✅ | | Get channel count | ✅ | ❌ | | Resource Management | | Explicit resource cleanup | ✅ | ✅ |

📦 Installation

npm

npm install react-native-sound

yarn

yarn add react-native-sound

🏗️ New Architecture Support

This library supports both the old and new React Native architecture:

• ✅ Old Architecture: Uses traditional NativeModules
• ✅ New Architecture: Uses TurboModules for better performance
• ✅ Expo: Compatible with custom development builds (not Expo Go)

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Common Issues

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

This usually indicates a linking issue. Try:

1. Clear build cache:

   cd android && ./gradlew cleanBuildCache
   

2. Reset Metro cache:

   npx react-native start --reset-cache
   

3. Clean and rebuild:

   # iOS
   cd ios && rm -rf build && cd .. && npx react-native run-ios
   
   # Android
   cd android && ./gradlew clean && cd .. && npx react-native run-android
   

iOS Build Issues

• Ensure audio files are added to Xcode project bundle
• Check that AVFoundation framework is linked (automatically handled by CocoaPods)

Android Build Issues

• Place audio files in android/app/src/main/res/raw/
• Use lowercase filenames without spaces or special characters
• Clear build cache if encountering linking issues

Getting Help

• 📚 Wiki Documentation
• 🐛 Issue Tracker
• 💬 Discussions

🎮 Demo & Examples

Complete Example App

Check out our enhanced example app with both remote and local audio playback:

• 📁 /example - Full-featured demo application
• 🎯 Remote URL audio playback
• 📱 Local bundled audio files
• 🎨 Modern UI with TypeScript

Community Examples

• 🎵 react-native-sound-playerview - Advanced audio player UI component

🚀 Quick Start

Setup Audio Files

Android

Save audio files in android/app/src/main/res/raw/:

android/app/src/main/res/raw/
├── whoosh.mp3        ✅ Correct
├── button_click.wav  ✅ Correct
└── my-sound.mp3      ❌ Use underscores: my_sound.mp3

Note: Use lowercase, underscored filenames. No subdirectories allowed.

iOS

1. Open your project in Xcode
2. Right-click your project → "Add Files to [PROJECT]"
3. Select your audio files and ensure they're added to the app target

Basic Usage

import Sound from "react-native-sound";

// Enable playback in silence mode (important for iOS)
Sound.setCategory("Playback");

// Load a sound file from the app bundle
const whoosh = new Sound("whoosh.mp3", Sound.MAIN_BUNDLE, (error) => {
  if (error) {
    console.log("Failed to load the sound", error);
    return;
  }

  // Sound loaded successfully
  console.log("Duration:", whoosh.getDuration(), "seconds");
  console.log("Channels:", whoosh.getNumberOfChannels());

  // Play the sound
  whoosh.play((success) => {
    if (success) {
      console.log("Successfully finished playing");
    } else {
      console.log("Playback failed due to audio decoding errors");
    }
  });
});

// Audio controls
whoosh.setVolume(0.5); // 50% volume
whoosh.setPan(1); // Full right stereo
whoosh.setNumberOfLoops(-1); // Loop indefinitely

// Get current properties
console.log("Volume:", whoosh.getVolume());
console.log("Pan:", whoosh.getPan());
console.log("Loops:", whoosh.getNumberOfLoops());

// Seek to specific time
whoosh.setCurrentTime(2.5);

// Get current playback position
whoosh.getCurrentTime((seconds) => {
  console.log("Current time:", seconds);
});

// Control playback
whoosh.pause(); // Pause playback
whoosh.stop(() => {
  // Stop and rewind
  whoosh.play(); // Play from beginning
});

// Always release resources when done
whoosh.release();

Advanced Examples

Loading from Different Sources

// From app bundle (most common)
const bundleSound = new Sound("sound.mp3", Sound.MAIN_BUNDLE, callback);

// From documents directory
const docSound = new Sound("sound.mp3", Sound.DOCUMENT, callback);

// From library directory
const libSound = new Sound("sound.mp3", Sound.LIBRARY, callback);

// From absolute path
const pathSound = new Sound("/path/to/sound.mp3", "", callback);

// From remote URL (iOS/Android only)
const urlSound = new Sound("https://example.com/sound.mp3", "", callback);

React Hook Example

import { useEffect, useRef, useState } from "react";
import Sound from "react-native-sound";

const useSound = (filename: string) => {
  const sound = useRef<Sound | null>(null);
  const [isLoaded, setIsLoaded] = useState(false);
  const [isPlaying, setIsPlaying] = useState(false);

  useEffect(() => {
    sound.current = new Sound(filename, Sound.MAIN_BUNDLE, (error) => {
      if (error) {
        console.log("Error loading sound:", error);
        return;
      }
      setIsLoaded(true);
    });

    return () => {
      sound.current?.release();
    };
  }, [filename]);

  const play = () => {
    if (sound.current && isLoaded) {
      sound.current.play((success) => {
        setIsPlaying(false);
      });
      setIsPlaying(true);
    }
  };

  const stop = () => {
    if (sound.current) {
      sound.current.stop();
      setIsPlaying(false);
    }
  };

  return { play, stop, isLoaded, isPlaying };
};

📝 Important Notes

Performance Tips

• Preload sounds during app initialization to minimize playback delay
• Reuse Sound instances for multiple playbacks of the same file
• Avoid race conditions by ensuring sounds are loaded before calling play()

Audio Session Behavior

• iOS: Uses AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient to mix multiple sounds
• Multiple playback: You can play several sound files simultaneously
• Background audio: Configure audio categories for background playback

File Format Support

iOS (AVAudioPlayer)

Supports: AAC, AIFF, CAF, MP3, WAV, and more

• 📚 Complete format list

Android (MediaPlayer)

Supports: 3GPP, MP4, MP3, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WAV, and more

• 📚 Complete format list

Path Handling

• Android absolute paths: Use /sdcard/ prefix (e.g., /sdcard/Downloads/sound.mp3)
• Method chaining: Supported for setters (e.g., sound.setVolume(0.5).setPan(0.5).play())

🎵 Audio Ecosystem

Related Libraries

| Library | Purpose | Best For | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------- | ---------------------------- | | react-native-video | Video & audio streaming | Streaming audio/video | | react-native-audio-toolkit | Advanced audio features | Recording & complex audio | | Expo Audio | Expo audio solution | Expo managed workflow | | @react-native-async-storage/async-storage | Storage | Persisting audio preferences |

When to Use react-native-sound

• ✅ Playing sound effects and short audio clips
• ✅ Background music with simple controls
• ✅ Audio feedback for user interactions
• ✅ Cross-platform compatibility requirements
• ✅ TypeScript projects requiring type safety

When to Consider Alternatives

• ❌ Audio streaming or long-form content
• ❌ Advanced audio processing or effects
• ❌ Audio recording capabilities
• ❌ Complex playlist management

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Here's how you can help:

Areas Where We Need Help

• 🐛 Bug fixes and stability improvements
• 📚 Documentation improvements and examples
• 🧪 Test coverage expansion
• 🚀 Performance optimizations
• 🆕 New platform support

Development Setup

1. Fork and clone the repository
2. Install dependencies: npm install
3. Run the example app: cd example && npm install && npm run android
4. Make your changes and test thoroughly
5. Add tests for new features
6. Update documentation as needed

Pull Request Guidelines

• 🔍 Open an issue first for major changes to discuss the approach
• ✅ Include tests for new functionality
• 📝 Update documentation including TypeScript definitions
• 🧪 Test on multiple platforms (iOS and Android)
• 📱 Test with both architectures (old and new React Native architecture)

Code Style

• Follow existing TypeScript/JavaScript patterns

• Use meaningful commit messages

• Keep changes focused and atomic

• 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. Under the hood, this module uses AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient to mix sounds on iOS.

• 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().

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

🌟 Support the Project

If this library helps your project, consider:

• ⭐ Starring the repository
• 🐛 Reporting bugs and issues
• 📝 Contributing improvements
• 💬 Helping others in discussions
• 📢 Sharing with the community

Made with ❤️ by the React Native community