There are low latency audio improvements in Jelly Bean. They will continue to make improvements in the next version of Android (K).
See the following videos:
Audio Latency Slide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc8YrVc4 ... ge#t=1366s
Audio Latency Improvements
Latency Improvements for:
- OpenSL
- soundpool
- tone generator
Significant improvements in warm latency for some devices
- Device-dependent
More to Come
Q&A question about Low Latency Audio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc8YrVc4 ... ge#t=3280s
Fireside Q&A question about Low Latency Audio:Q: You mentioned in the slides that audio latency is improved in Jelly Bean.
Can you tell me how much it has improved in milliseconds?
A: The improvements are very significant in some cases, but they're also very device-specific. So we don't want to give hard numbers right now, because, basically, our job is not done. So I would say, test with the devices that you care about right now, see what the improvements are in your situation and await further instructions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJbPPjA ... ge#t=3552s
My notes from the fireside chat:
Basically what was said is that they are doing a few things to improve the latency. One is the implementation of a fast mixer for OpenSL. They are trying to get the latency very low but once you get to the sub-10ms level the problems become more device dependent.
For the Galaxy Nexus with ICS latency was ~100 ms and with their changes they got it down to ~12 ms. They still want to make the latency lower than that to 10ms or lower. Not all Jelly Bean devices are showing such a dramatic improvement.
They work will not be completed with Jelly Bean, they will continue to make improvements in the next version (K).
USB Audio
They also added USB audio output support to Jelly Bean see the bottom of:
http://developer.android.com/about/vers ... -bean.html
USB Audio
USB audio output support allows hardware vendors to build hardware such as audio docks that interface with Android devices. This functionality is also exposed with the Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK) to give all developers the chance to create their own hardware.