Gapless playback on Android: why there is a gap between songs, and how to get rid of it
Short answer: a gap between tracks comes from one of two places. Either the file itself starts and ends with a little encoder silence (MP3 and AAC files do, and a player can only trim it if the encoder noted how much), or the player opens the next song only after the current one has finished. Audify plays gapless by default: it loads the next track before the current one ends, so there is no setting to switch on. If you still hear a gap, the cause is almost always in the file.
What gapless playback means, and who needs it
Gapless playback means the next track starts on the exact sample where the previous one ended, with no silence added in between. On most studio albums you would never notice, because the songs already have a pause between them. On music meant to flow from one track into the next (live albums with the applause running on, DJ mixes, classical works and operas split into movements, concept albums) even a fraction of a second of silence breaks it.
Gapless does not mean the player removes silence. A pause that is part of the recording stays exactly as long as the artist made it; gapless only means the player adds nothing of its own.
Where the gaps come from
Silence inside the file. Lossy encoders such as MP3 and AAC work in fixed blocks of audio and need a run-up, so they add a little silence at the start and end of every track. In Apple's documentation the usual start-up silence of an AAC file is 2,112 samples, about 48 milliseconds at CD sample rate, and the padding at the end is anything up to 1,023 samples; the LAME project describes the same for MP3. Played back to back without trimming, two such files leave roughly 30 to 70 milliseconds of silence at the join: short, but audible as a hiccup in music that is meant to flow.
Good encoders note how much silence they added: LAME writes it into an info tag in the first frame of the MP3, and AAC files from iTunes record it in the file too, so a player can cut it off again. The MP3 standard itself has no place for that note, so a file from an encoder that does not write one keeps the silence for good.
A player that loads too late. A player that waits for one song to end before it opens, reads and starts decoding the next leaves a pause while it catches up, and that pause can reach half a second or more. A gapless player prepares the next track in advance and feeds both to the speaker as one continuous stream.
Lossless files are different. FLAC and WAV store exactly the samples that were recorded, with no block padding: the FLAC specification even allows the last block to be shorter so that the file matches the length of the audio. An album ripped from a CD to FLAC is gapless-ready by design.
Audify plays gapless by default
There is no gapless switch in Audify, because there is nothing to switch on. The app always loads the next song in your queue before the current one ends, so its playback engine, Android's Media3 ExoPlayer, moves from one track to the next without a pause and trims the encoder silence that an MP3 or AAC file declares.
The exception is formats that engine cannot decode, of which WMA is the one you are most likely to meet. Audify hands those files to Android's older built-in player, which starts the next file as soon as the current one finishes. Depending on the phone, that can leave a pause of a few hundredths of a second. If a WMA album has to flow, rip it again from the CD as FLAC.
Audify for Windows and Mac plays gapless too, so an album that flows on your phone flows on your computer.
How to play an album without gaps
- 1. Start the album from its first track. Gapless only helps when the next song in the queue is the next song of the album. Open the album or its folder and start from the top, rather than from a mixed playlist.
- 2. Turn shuffle off. With shuffle on, the next song is picked at random, so a live set jumps instead of flowing, even though each switch is seamless.
- 3. Play files that are gapless-ready. FLAC, WAV, OGG and Opus need nothing extra. MP3 and AAC need the encoder's gapless information, which files made with LAME or iTunes carry. If you are ripping a CD anyway, rip it to FLAC.
- 4. Test the join on the phone itself. Play the two tracks that should flow through the phone speaker or wired headphones. If the join is clean there but not in the car or on a Bluetooth speaker, that device is adding the pause, not the file or the app.
Which formats are gapless-ready
FLAC and WAV: always. Lossless files hold exactly the recorded audio, with nothing added at either end.
OGG Vorbis and Opus: yes. Both formats record exactly where the audio starts and ends, so no extra tag is needed.
MP3 and AAC (M4A): yes, if the encoder recorded its padding, as LAME and iTunes do. A file without that information keeps a short silence at every join.
WMA: nearly. Audify plays it through Android's older player, which can leave a pause of a few hundredths of a second.
Converting one lossy format into another, MP3 to AAC for example, costs quality and can bake the old silence into the new file. To fix an album that gaps, start again from the CD or a lossless copy. The full list of what Audify plays is in what audio formats Audify supports.
Still hearing a gap? Check these
The silence is in the recording. Many albums have a real pause between songs, and many pop tracks end in a fade and a second of silence. A gapless player plays that exactly as it is; it does not guess where to cut.
The file has no gapless information. Old MP3s, and files from encoders that do not record their padding, keep a short silence at every join. Rip the album again from the CD, as FLAC or with a current LAME encoder.
Shuffle is on, or the album is spread across a playlist. Every switch is still seamless, but the next song is not the one the album expects.
The pause only happens on one device. If the join is clean on the phone speaker but not in the car or on a Bluetooth speaker, that device adds it, and no player setting can remove it. For the car in general, see how to play music in the car.
Common questions
Does Audify support gapless playback?
Yes. On Android it plays gapless by default: the app loads the next track before the current one ends, so there is no setting to switch on. Audify for Windows and Mac plays gapless too.
Is FLAC better than MP3 for gapless playback?
FLAC is gapless-ready by design because it adds no encoder padding. An MP3 made with LAME is just as seamless, because it records its padding for the player to trim; the difference lies in how the file was made. For sound quality, see FLAC vs MP3.
Does gapless playback work in Android Auto?
Yes. Android Auto shows Audify's controls on the car screen, but the music is still played by Audify on your phone, so the transitions are the same. If you hear a pause only in the car, the car's audio system is adding it.
Does gapless playback use more battery?
Not noticeably. Loading the next song early changes when the phone decodes it, not how much it decodes.
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Sources
“Transitions between items in a playlist are seamless.”Android Developers, Media3 ExoPlayer: Playlists
- Technical Note TN2258: AAC Audio - Encoder Delay and Synchronization — Apple Developer
- LAME Technical FAQ — The LAME Project
- RFC 9639: Free Lossless Audio Codec — IETF
- Playlists (Media3 ExoPlayer) — Android Developers
- Gapless playback — Wikipedia