Improve audio recording configuration #2752

avazirna · 2024-04-26T10:35:09Z

Summary

This PR was motivated by an issue with the Audio Recording feature in which the resulting recording had no sound. The issue was replicated by recording audio with CommCare and another voice recorder app at the same time, it was noticed that navigating away from CommCare would cause the recording to go silent. A few options were entertained as potential solutions, but ultimately taking advantage of some recording configuration elements introduced in the latest versions of Android, proved to be sufficient to ensure that CommCare audio recording feature is handled with higher priority by the system.
While it was possible to replicate the issue, it's important to note that the actual conditions in which the issue occurred could not be established as access to the list of apps in the affected devices were not possible.

The actual replication steps are:

Install a voice recording app, such as this, or make sure there is one installed in the device
Using CommCare 2.53.1 or below, initiate an audio recording
Navigate away to the app installed in number 1 and start recording there too
Go back to CommCare, stop the recording and save
Play the recording in CommCare and confirm whether during the period away from CommCare, the recording didn't capture any sound.

Ticket: https://dimagi.atlassian.net/browse/SAAS-15417

Product Description

There are a couple change visible to the user:

CommCare now checks if there is an ongoing recording before initiating a new one, and informs the user with the necessary message when that's the case:

During the recording, the user is advised not to leave CommCare:

From Android 10, if during a recording, users initiate a new recording in a different app, causing the recording in CommCare to stop capturing sound, CommCare will post a notification and pause the recording. Tapping on this notification, will take the user back to CommCare and resume the recording.

Safety Assurance

I have confidence that this PR will not introduce a regression for the reasons below
Do we need to enhance manual QA test coverage ? If yes, "QA Note" label is set correctly

Safety story

These changes were successfully tested on Android 9, 10, 11 and 12.

QA Note: Test for bug fix and add a test in QA plan to test for simultaneous recordings.

From Android 10, an apps with privacy sensitive audio sources have higher priority https://developer.android.com/media/platform/sharing-audio-input#behavior

shubham1g5

Couple general comments -

Can we add a Jira link and repro steps in the PR description to help anyone coming across this PR in future.
We also discussed setting up the audio config callback and pause recording on our side if we get `isClientSilenced() as true to handle situations in which user navigates away from CC recording and start a new recording. Curious if there is a reason so that we decided to not implement it ?

shubham1g5 · 2024-04-29T06:03:52Z

app/src/org/commcare/views/widgets/RecordingFragment.java

+        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.Q) {
+            recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.VOICE_COMMUNICATION);
+       } else {
+            recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
+       }


We should test that the recording with source set to VOICE_COMMUNICATION are playable in browser (instead of download) on HQ.

Any updates here ?

Yes, I tested it and it plays normally.

avazirna · 2024-04-30T10:24:28Z

Curious if there is a reason so that we decided to not implement it ?
I'm indecisive about it. I did implement it but during tests, the changes to the configuration seemed sufficient to ensure that CC continues recording even though other apps are trying to record (the other apps get not sound). However, I don't have certainty about whether the third-party apps that I used have the same configuration, so maybe better to include. What do you think?

shubham1g5 · 2024-04-30T10:49:41Z

I would think that we should include it as it seems to be the most fullproof solution to have empty recordings (callback works irrespective of Android version ?)

avazirna · 2024-05-01T15:57:40Z

callback works irrespective of Android version ?

From Android 7.1. But the tricky part is in assessing when the recording has gone silent, isClientSilenced () was introduced in Android 10. For versions prior to 10, I was considering using getMaxAmplitude() but I wasn't able to thoroughly test its reliability. Any thoughts?

shubham1g5

For versions prior to 10, I was considering using getMaxAmplitude() but I wasn't able to thoroughly test its reliability. Any thoughts?

I think the only way to check will be to test it out. Have you been facing difficulties testing ?

app/src/org/commcare/views/widgets/RecordingFragment.java

app/assets/locales/android_translatable_strings.txt

app/src/org/commcare/views/widgets/RecordingFragment.java

app/src/org/commcare/utils/NotificationUtil.java

avazirna · 2024-05-03T00:10:27Z

I think the only way to check will be to test it out. Have you been facing difficulties testing ?

The testing was successful. The tricky part is in having certainty that 0 (zero) amplitude always means that the recording has gone silent and not that maybe that there is no sound to record, i.e. people stopped talking and there is no background noise.

shubham1g5 · 2024-05-03T07:19:45Z

people stopped talking and there is no background noise.

Are you getting a 0 output from the method in this case ?

avazirna · 2024-05-03T10:12:37Z

people stopped talking and there is no background noise.

Are you getting a 0 output from the method in this case ?

Not necessarily, which gives me 80% confidence that this option should work fine, so happy to push this out and have QA confirm that that's the case. Agree?

shubham1g5 · 2024-05-03T10:18:20Z

Not necessarily, which gives me 80% confidence that this option should work fine, so happy to push this out and have QA confirm that that's the case. Agree?

Sounds good to me.

shubham1g5 · 2024-05-06T04:03:06Z

app/src/org/commcare/views/widgets/RecordingFragment.java

+
+                try {
+                    Thread.sleep(500);
+                } catch (InterruptedException e) {


This doesn't feel right to me. If we don't think recorder.getMaxAmplitude(), lets not use it at all instead of hacking something ambiguous here. I would suggest that we only do a one time check on recorder.getMaxAmplitude() and treat it as reliable unless we find otherwise

shubham1g5

Looks good :)

avazirna · 2024-05-06T13:14:54Z

@damagatchi retest this please

avazirna · 2024-05-07T07:34:46Z

@damagatchi retest this please

avazirna · 2024-05-07T10:05:44Z

@damagatchi retest this please

avazirna added 4 commits April 26, 2024 03:28

Prevent new recordings when there is one in progress

55b6ef4

Set audio source to VOICE_COMMUNICATION

3ddf9f3

From Android 10, an apps with privacy sensitive audio sources have higher priority https://developer.android.com/media/platform/sharing-audio-input#behavior

Enable privacy sensitive flag

9db0c98

Improve message during recording

79d9ce4

avazirna requested a review from shubham1g5 April 26, 2024 10:36

avazirna marked this pull request as ready for review April 26, 2024 10:38

shubham1g5 added QA Note product/all-users labels Apr 29, 2024

shubham1g5 added this to the 2.54 milestone Apr 29, 2024

shubham1g5 reviewed Apr 29, 2024

View reviewed changes

avazirna added 5 commits May 1, 2024 16:38

Register AudioRecordingCallback

ea389c3

Pause recording when it goes silent after configuration change

bf8c5fd

Lint

0f782a0

Add utility class to post notifications

7d7ce58

Notify user when recording pauses due to another app

2116cb0

avazirna requested a review from shubham1g5 May 2, 2024 08:35

shubham1g5 requested changes May 2, 2024

View reviewed changes

avazirna added 3 commits May 3, 2024 02:04

Let user resume recording after pausing due to another recording

2339c55

Inform user about recording being pause due to another recording

f706075

Improve notification message

7f0942d

avazirna requested a review from shubham1g5 May 5, 2024 21:29

shubham1g5 requested changes May 6, 2024

View reviewed changes

Check if microphone is capturing audio on Android 9 and lower

246f153

Unregister callback before stopping recording

93e8e8f

avazirna force-pushed the handle-recording-configuration-changes branch from da57e51 to 93e8e8f Compare May 6, 2024 11:54

shubham1g5 approved these changes May 6, 2024

View reviewed changes

avazirna merged commit c440c43 into master May 7, 2024
4 of 7 checks passed

avazirna deleted the handle-recording-configuration-changes branch May 7, 2024 21:44

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Improve audio recording configuration #2752

Improve audio recording configuration #2752

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Improve audio recording configuration #2752

Improve audio recording configuration #2752

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avazirna commented Apr 26, 2024 • edited

Summary

Product Description

Safety Assurance

Safety story

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