Streaming Audio in Readium for iOS (Swift) – Any Best Practices or Workarounds?

[mohamedAlhadadi]

Hello,

I’m working on an iOS app using the swift-toolkit and R2LCPClient to play audiobooks (audiobook.lcpl), but I’m facing a challenge with large audio files. They require a long time to download before playback can begin, which is not ideal for a smooth user experience.

Does Readium support progressive streaming for audiobooks (i.e., starting playback while the file is still downloading)? Or does the entire file need to be downloaded first?

If native streaming isn’t supported, does anyone have any recommended workarounds or techniques for implementing streaming in a Swift-based iOS app? Additionally, how does this work with LCP-protected content—does it require special handling for streaming?

I’d really appreciate any guidance, code examples, or relevant resources to help implement this feature.

Thanks in advance!

Best Regards.

[mickael-menu]

Currently, it is not supported for LCP-protected content, but I am working on this feature. It should be ready by early 2025.

You can stream non-protected content now by opening a Readium Web Publication Manifest that points to unrestricted audio files.

[mohamedAlhadadi]

Hi @mickael-menu,
Is there any update about this feature?
streaming for audiobook.lcpl

[mickael-menu]

I'm working on it in the lcp-streaming branch, it should be available soon.

[mohamedAlhadadi]

Thanks for the update.
What about this feature on Android? Will it be available soon as well?

[mickael-menu]

It's already available on Android https://github.com/readium/kotlin-toolkit/blob/develop/docs/guides/lcp.md#streaming-an-lcp-protected-package