AirPlay is one of Apple’s most handy utility out there that lets you wirelessly stream music throughout iDevices such as iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, iTunes or select stereo systems. The basic (and most important) advantage of AirPlay is that it eliminates the need of carrying your music in every device you own.
Think of it something like cloud storage – just one device and you can stream everything from and to any AirPlay supported device, provided that both the devices (transmitter and receiver) are on the same WiFi network.
However, AirPlay is restricted to only iOS devices, which leaves no cookie for other devices such as Android.
Enter Android HIFI, an app with a not-so-creative name, that enables you to stream music from AirPlay clients to any Android device. The app is utterly easy to use. In fact, there is nothing that really needs to be explained. It’s just a bare-bone AirPlay receiver app. Though, it does come with a few simple features:
- Adjustable delay, so as to synchronize music playback with other AirPlay receivers, or video.
- Runs in background, doesn’t use much memory.
- Automatically adjusts the volume when a headset or any Bluetooth device is disconnected.
- Auto mutes music in case of an incoming call.
Please note that both of your devices need to be connected to the same WiFi network. For those who use their phone as a modem for using internet on their laptop/PC can simply create a virtual WiFi hotspot on their PC/laptop without any software using this simple tutorial and connect their phones to it.
The device name is by default set to ‘Android-HIFI’ and there’s no way to rename it yet, but I believe the developer must already be working on it. This Airplay for Android app is available for free on the Play Store.
Play Store: Android HIFI (free)
Alternative – AirBubble (AirPlay for Android)
AirBubble is another great AirPlay for Android app which acts as an AirPlay receiver and a good alternative to Android HiFi. Its basic functioning is similar to that of Android HiFi, but it offers a few geeky extra features such as changing the device name, configuring Audio buffer size, initial buffer (frames), etc.
Play Store: AirBubble: Free | Paid License
The free version of AirBubble is fully functional, but has a limitation of 30 minutes per session. You can launch the app as many time as you want though.
