Editing Advanced Audio Coding (section)

===Hardware===
{{Update section|date=April 2025}}

====iTunes and iPod====
In April 2003, [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] brought mainstream attention to AAC by announcing that its [[iTunes]] and [[iPod]] products would support songs in MPEG-4 AAC format (via a [[firmware]] update for older iPods). Customers could download music in a closed-source [[digital rights management]] (DRM)-restricted form of 128&nbsp;kbit/s AAC (see [[FairPlay]]) via the [[iTunes Store]] or create files without DRM from their own CDs using iTunes. In later years, Apple began offering music videos and movies, which also use AAC for audio encoding.

On May 29, 2007, Apple began selling songs and music videos from participating record labels at higher bitrate (256&nbsp;kbit/s cVBR) and free of DRM, a format dubbed "iTunes Plus" . These files mostly adhere to the AAC standard and are playable on many non-Apple products but they do include custom iTunes information such as [[album artwork]] and a purchase receipt, so as to identify the customer in case the file is leaked out onto [[peer-to-peer]] networks. It is possible, however, to remove these custom tags to restore interoperability with players that conform strictly to the AAC specification. As of January 6, 2009, nearly all music on the USA regioned iTunes Store became DRM-free, with the remainder becoming DRM-free by the end of March 2009.<ref>
{{cite web
| url=http://www.macworld.com/article/137946/2009/01/itunestore.html
| title=iTunes Store goes DRM-free
| access-date=2009-02-10
| last=Cohen
| first=Peter
| date=2010-05-27
| work=Macworld
| publisher=Mac Publishing
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090218092311/http://www.macworld.com/article/137946/2009/01/itunestore.html| archive-date= 18 February 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref>

iTunes offers a "Variable Bit Rate" encoding option which encodes AAC tracks in the [[Average bitrate|Constrained Variable Bitrate]] scheme (a less strict variant of ABR encoding); the underlying QuickTime API does offer a true VBR encoding profile however.<ref>{{cite web
| url=https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Apple_AAC#afconvert
| title=Apple AAC
| access-date=2021-11-22
| publisher=[[Hydrogenaudio]]
| url-status= live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123040120/https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Apple_AAC#afconvert|archive-date=2021-11-23}}</ref>

As of September 2009, Apple has added support for [[HE-AAC]] (which is fully part of the MP4 standard) only for radio streams, not file playback, and iTunes still lacks support for true VBR encoding.

==== Other portable players ====
*[[Archos]]
*[[Cowon]] (unofficially supported on some models)
*[[Creative Zen]] Portable
*[[Fiio]] (all current models)
*[[Nintendo 3DS]]
*[[Nintendo DSi]]
*[[Philips GoGear]] Muse
*[[PlayStation Portable]] (PSP) with firmware 2.0 or greater
*[[Samsung YEPP]]
*[[SanDisk Sansa]] (some models)
*[[Walkman]]
*[[Zune]]
*Any portable player that fully supports the [[Rockbox]] third party firmware

====Mobile phones====
For a number of years, many mobile phones from manufacturers such as [[Nokia]], [[Motorola]], [[Samsung]], [[Sony Ericsson]], [[BenQ-Siemens]] and [[Philips]] have supported AAC playback. The first such phone was the [[Nokia 5510]] released in 2002 which also plays MP3s. However, this phone was a commercial failure{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} and such phones with integrated music players did not gain mainstream popularity until 2005 when the trend of having AAC as well as MP3 support continued. Most new smartphones and music-themed phones support playback of these formats.
* '''[[Sony Ericsson]]''' phones support various AAC formats in MP4 container. AAC-LC is supported in all phones beginning with [[Sony Ericsson K700|K700]], phones beginning with [[W550]] have support of HE-AAC. The latest devices such as the [[P990]], [[K610]], [[W890i]] and later support HE-AAC v2.
* '''[[Nokia XpressMusic]]''' and other new generation Nokia multimedia phones like N- and E-Series also support AAC format in LC, HE, M4A and HEv2 profiles. These also supports playing LTP-encoded AAC audio.
* '''[[BlackBerry]]''' phones running the [[BlackBerry 10]] operating system support AAC playback natively. Select previous generation [[BlackBerry OS]] devices also support AAC.
* '''[[bada OS]]'''
* '''[[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[iPhone]]''' supports AAC and FairPlay protected AAC files formerly used as the default encoding format in the iTunes Store until the [[FairPlay#Announcement of FairPlay restrictions removal|removal of DRM restrictions in March 2009]].
* '''[[Android (operating system)|Android]]''' 2.3<ref>{{cite web|url=http://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-2.3-highlights.html|title=Gingerbread - Android Developers|website=Android Developers|access-date=8 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229061610/https://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-2.3-highlights.html|archive-date=29 December 2017}}</ref> and later supports AAC-LC, HE-AAC and HE-AAC v2 in MP4 or M4A containers along with several other audio formats. Android 3.1 and later supports raw ADTS files. Android 4.1 can encode AAC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html|title=Supported media formats - Android Developers|website=Android Developers|access-date=8 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311121312/http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html|archive-date=11 March 2012}}</ref>
* '''[[WebOS]]''' by HP/Palm supports AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, and .m4a containers in its native music player as well as several third-party players. However, it does not support Apple's FairPlay DRM files downloaded from iTunes.<ref>{{cite web|website=Palm USA|title=Palm Pre Phone / Features, Details|url=http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/#techspecs|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524144931/http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/#techspecs|archive-date=2011-05-24 }}</ref>
* '''[[Windows Phone]]'''<nowiki/>'s [[Silverlight]] runtime supports AAC-LC, HE-AAC and HE-AAC v2 decoding.

====Other devices====
*'''[[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[iPad]]''': Supports AAC and FairPlay protected AAC files used as the default encoding format in the iTunes Store
*'''[[Palm OS]] [[Personal digital assistant|PDAs]]''': Many Palm OS based PDAs and smartphones can play AAC and HE-AAC with the 3rd party software [[Pocket Tunes]]. Version 4.0, released in December 2006, added support for native AAC and HE-AAC files. The AAC codec for [[TCPMP]], a popular video player, was withdrawn after version 0.66 due to patent issues, but can still be downloaded from sites other than corecodec.org. CorePlayer, the commercial follow-on to TCPMP, includes AAC support. Other Palm OS programs supporting AAC include Kinoma Player and AeroPlayer.
*'''[[Windows Mobile]]''': Supports AAC either by the native [[Windows Media Player]] or by third-party products (TCPMP, CorePlayer){{Citation needed|date=January 2010}}
*'''[[Epson]]''': Supports AAC playback in the [[Epson P-2000|P-2000]] and [[Epson P-4000|P-4000]] Multimedia/Photo Storage Viewers
*'''[[Sony Reader]]''': plays M4A files containing AAC, and displays metadata created by iTunes. Other Sony products, including the A and E series Network Walkmans, support AAC with firmware updates (released May 2006) while the S series supports it out of the box.
*'''[[Sonos]] Digital Media Player''': supports playback of AAC files
*'''Barnes & Noble [[Nook Color]]''': supports playback of AAC encoded files
*'''Roku [[SoundBridge]]''': a network audio player, supports playback of AAC encoded files
*'''[[Squeezebox (network music player)|Squeezebox]]''': network audio player (made by [[Slim Devices]], a [[Logitech]] company) that supports playback of AAC files
*'''[[PlayStation 3]]''': supports encoding and decoding of AAC files
*'''[[Xbox 360]]''': supports streaming of AAC through the Zune software, and of supported iPods connected through the USB port
*'''[[Wii]]''': supports AAC files through version 1.1 of the [[Photo Channel]] as of December 11, 2007. All AAC profiles and bitrates are supported as long as it is in the .m4a file extension. The 1.1 update removed MP3 compatibility, but according to Nintendo, users who have installed this may freely downgrade to the old version if they wish.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na/channelsPhoto.jsp#photo1.1|title=Nintendo - Customer Service - Wii - Photo Channel<!-- Bot generated title -->|website=nintendo.com|access-date=8 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505150346/https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na/channelsPhoto.jsp#photo1.1|archive-date=5 May 2017}}</ref>
*'''[[Livescribe]] Pulse and Echo Smartpens''': record and store audio in AAC format. The audio files can be replayed using the pen's integrated speaker, attached headphones, or on a computer using the Livescribe Desktop software. The AAC files are stored in the user's "My Documents" folder of the Windows OS and can be distributed and played without specialized hardware or software from Livescribe.
*'''Google [[Chromecast]]''': supports playback of LC-AAC and HE-AAC audio<ref>{{cite web |url=https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media |title=Supported Media for Google Cast |access-date=2015-09-22 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923004649/https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/media |archive-date=2015-09-23 }} | Supported Media for Google Cast</ref>