Android 3.1 now plays FLAC audio natively

Audiophiles with Android phones rejoice – with the latest version of Android (3.1 Honeycomb), the file format you’ve been waiting for is finally here. According to the Core Media Formats in Android page on the Android developers’ website, FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files are now supported natively on the operating system. This means that you don’t have to download a third party program or load up a custom ROM just to access your high-quality music anymore – the default music player will now be able to handle the format without a hitch.

Time to load up that SD card with all your favorite music and enjoy those tunes without any loss in quality. Just make sure that you’ve got a set of good headphones on, if not you probably won’t be able to tell the difference (wait, how can you be an audiophile if you don’t have awesome headphones?). While native FLAC support isn’t likely to arrive on earlier versions of Android (i.e. Gingerbread, Froyo), you can expect it to be a feature in future versions such as Icecream Sandwich.