Audio latency on Android version of app only

[BoiLiNG-PoiNT]

I've had an ongoing issue with extremely high audio latency on the Android app version of Steam Link for over a year now, and with my Samsung Galaxy S21 finally updating to Android 13 coupled with the recent announcement of Nvidia dropping Gamestream support in February, I figured I'd give Steam Link another try. Unfortunately, it seems this issue has never been resolved despite a few older posts citing what seems to be this exact issue. So I'm just gonna make a new post here...

Effectively the audio latency is consistently around 200-400ms when using any Android version of the app (that is, with my limited test sample of 3 Android devices, 2 being the same model of phones). All of my streaming is done on the local network (5GHz AC WiFi or gigabit Ethernet only). I've tested multiple settings on the host PC, various quality settings on the client device, but nothing seemed to resolve this. Again, this issue isn't sporadic or intermittent, but very consistently 200-400ms, and only when using the Android app. These are the devices I've used for testing:

• PC - i7 9700K + 3080 Ti via gigabit Ethernet
  
• S21 - 2 different Samsung Galaxy S21 phones connected via 5GHz WiFi
  
• MacBook - 2010 15" MacBook Pro running OS X 10.13.6 via 5GHz WiFi (using Apple App Store version of Steam Link when being used as client device)
  
• Android TV - Sony XBR-85X900H running Android TV OS v10 via USB 3.0 gigabit Ethernet adapter

And the following are the different test scenarios and their results:
host -> client = result
good = acceptable/imperceptible audio latency
bad = unusable/extremely noticeable audio latency

   
• PC -> S21 = bad
      
• MacBook -> S21 = bad
      
• PC -> Android TV = bad
  
• MacBook -> Android TV = bad
  
• PC -> MacBook = good
  
• PC -> S21 using Moonlight/Gamestream = good

Oddly, the video stream does not seem to suffer from any significant/unexpected latency no matter the test scenario. Additionally, it seems as if the audio for everything in the app itself has latency. For example, when navigating the menus, the sounds of button pushes lags far behind both the physical input (be it touch input, wired/wireless gamepads, or the Sony TV remote) and the video response of that input. This is not the case when using the Apple App Store version of the Steam Link app on the MacBook Pro.

From my limited data above, my assumption is that there is some sort of bug in the audio processing in the Android app, and that this issue is unrelated to the network conditions or the audio decoder for the stream. No Bluetooth audio devices are being used, and the results are the same on the Android devices using both the built-in and external speakers (USB-C DAC + headphones with phone, HDMI 2.1 eARC receiver with TV). Unfortunately I don't have any other Android devices I've tested, but the phones/TV are 2 different chipsets (Qualcomm vs MediaTek). It should also be noted if it wasn't obvious that I had this issue when running Android 12 a year ago, and the TV is still on Android 10.

Hope anyone else who has this specific problem chimes in on this to get this issue some overdue attention. This makes most games pretty unplayable via Steam Link for me, so I hope it gets fixed soon. Thanks!

TL;DR 200-400ms audio latency via Android Steam Link app, even when just navigating menus of app and not streaming

[_I_]

are you saying audio and video are out of sync/
or just that the audio is behind the host?

if they are in sync, its network delay

if the app itself before you connect to host is out of sync, then its a problem somewhere with the devices or phone

posting the streaming log would help
..\steam\logs\streaming_log.txt

[BoiLiNG-PoiNT]

Sorry if it wasn't clear from the first post, but I'm saying there is audio latency within the app itself before connecting to a host, so I guess you could say they are out of sync. The sound lags behind the video when simply navigating the menus of the app, changing in-app settings, etc., but only with my Android devices. I don't believe a stream log would be very helpful to resolve this issue as I'm quite certain it is not network delay. Also, I don't see how 2 different phones and a smart TV could all separately be the cause of the problem, especially when no other Android apps/games have audio latency on any of those devices (including Moonlight/Gamestream). Perhaps this issue is only affecting certain devices, but the smart TV and phones are showing the exact same symptoms despite being very different devices.

My issue seems to be the same as this post below, which you appear to have commented on almost exactly a year ago:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/4/3193614756857300810/

[Enethen]

Hello.
Yes I confirm,
I have the exact same issue on my Xiaomi 9T (Android 10)
About half a second delay between image and sound even in the menus before launching any streaming

[Shingo-Y]

Same issue here too.

[Shingo-Y]

Originally posted by Shingo-Y:

Same issue here too.

On a A80J

[BoiLiNG-PoiNT]

Thanks to both of you for confirming. Looks like they finally released an update to the beta version on the Google Play Store, but still no fix. The app audio still lags in the menus before streaming, and streamed audio is delayed as well. I'm also having this issue on the non-beta version, before anyone suggests that might be the issue. Strange that more people aren't having (or perhaps just noticing) this problem. Moonlight and Sunshine are still working great though, just no Steam Input support with my PS4 controller, sadly.

[BoiLiNG-PoiNT]

Good news! It appears the latency is fixed for me in the beta build 1.3.5.253

https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/4/3818545058611918534/

Changes in build 1.3.5.253:
Fixed audio latency introduced in the last build

Right away the menu audio latency was significantly better, and so far streaming is too. Weirdly, others are reporting new audio issues that I haven't, such as crackling audio in the menus, so hopefully the new fix for that doesn't undo this. Also, this changelog seems to be referencing a hotfix for a bug introduced in beta 1.3.4, but I've been having this issue for over a year...

I'll check again once the new beta is released. I'm not 100% sure how these are related, but the issues are very similar if nothing else.

[ELPELUUU]

Can confirm the audio issue. Tested with h.264 and HEVC, with and without hardware encoding. Audio has much more delay than video (<30ms), but even the app interface delay.
1.3.3 delay
1.3.5 delay + crackling
1.3.9 delay
Amazon fire HD 10

[Karmalakas]

It's been years and internet is full of this exact same issue complaints - still no result :(
Also tried a bunch of different settings and even installed SteamLink Audio Drivers (github.com/FCGWolfe/SteamLinkAudioDrivers), but no luck

[Karmalakas]

I also noticed, when I turn on audio on host, when navigating menus on client (Android TV), the sound on host is instant and matches actions on client, but the sound on client is delayed, Basically if sound is turned on on both host and client, client side is like echo. But video matches exactly on both machines

[Santa Crab]

I am on version 1.3.12.278 on Xiaomi MiTV-AFKRO and I still have big audio latency (while input and video are perfect)

[Santa Crab]

news?

[ecafree2]

I'm on version 1.3.14 BETA now, and this issue still exists.
I wonder how moonlight developers avoided the problem if it's that hard to solve.

[Ailon]

Originally posted by ecafree2:

I'm on version 1.3.14 BETA now, and this issue still exists.
I wonder how moonlight developers avoided the problem if it's that hard to solve.

They did not avoid this problem, there are posts about it on Moonlight GitHub / Reddit.

I have never found any official response addressing this issue. My wild guess is that for Android TV 11 and up (NVIDIA SHIELD with Android TV 9 is mostly unaffected) there is some issue with "no delay" (?) audio processing.

[JJ Frankie JJ]

Still experiencing this in 2025....assumed it was my TCL TV not allowing "game mode" for apps...got a separate google TV streamer, installed steamlink and it worked perfect for a few days...now its back to a massive delay between video and audio...its damn near a full second off.