[General Questions and Answers] LXL555:
Every android phone I've ever had from 2011 to 2016, whether it be samsung or LG, has had the same problem. That problem is the inability to use the sound device in many circumstances for 2 operations at once. Primarily I am talking about recording the sound from a device at the same time as using an app such as whats app or skype. As soon as any audio recording app I have used begins to record in an attempt to record a call, the microphone seems to stop working and the other person on the call cannot hear you. The same problem occurs when trying to record a video at the same time as making an audio recording. A message simply comes up on screen with words to the effect of, "the sound device is already in use", or something similar. I know there are ways to record calls with apps using the normal phone functionality, but it seems more difficult with apps. Ideally any app should be able to use sound devices at the same time so you shouldn't HAVE to find a work around or a specialist app as that takes up precious brain juice and time and effort and life is just too short for that. It should just work by default easily. You wouldn't expect the audio card on your pc to stop recording audio just because you were recording output sound so why should things be any different with a phone?

I can't help feeling this very annoying problem should have been solved years ago without having to go in to potentially time consuming shennanigans to get around it, (assuming there is a way round it at all!). Lets explore some possible reasons for this..

Is this a software issue that can be resolved some way or another involving rooting etc?

Is it another example nanny state nonsense trying to stop what it thinks might be excessive use of resources? The kind of nanny state rubbish which plagues android and tech in general these days like a horrible disease in the name of artificial intelligence (albeit dumb and rudementary), or for the supposed purposes "improving" device experience or resource management when most of the time it makes the user experience far worse and far more stressful with it's interference, (e.g turning down the sound to 'protect' your ears when plugging in at 3.5 jack etc etc)

Or is it an actual hardware issue? i.e the hardware is just incapable of multiple uses at once...

If it is a hardware issue, then why on earth has this not been fixed by now? Or are there now phones that don't have this problem any more? Is it a case that the corporate scum who make these phones just don't see it as worthwhile to put in better hardware to make these uses possible? Because they care more about saving a few pennies than making a good product? Or because the dumbed down sheeple won't use such extra functionality? Or both?

If there are phones which no longer have this problem, which are they? Because I would like to avoid this with my next phone which I will be getting sooner rather than later. I don't think I can bear yet another faulty phone with this problem, as that is how I see it, or at the every least a deep design flaw. Is this a problem that effects tablets as well as phones?

If the only solution is a work around, what is the easiest and simplest work around if one is required that would work on a general basis rather than a case by case work around. Is there light at the end of the tunnel on this with future designs and developments so we don't need to have work arounds in the near future?

Thanks in advance for the thoughts and insights.