name: aosp-native-services-and-media description: | AOSP Part IV — Native Services & Media. Use when reasoning about surfaceflinger, audioserver, mediaserver, cameraserver, the graphics pipeline (BufferQueue, GraphicBuffer, OpenGL ES / Vulkan / Skia / HWUI, RenderThread, layer composition), the animation system (Choreographer, ValueAnimator, RenderNode animations, dynamic spring/fling), the audio stack (AudioFlinger, AudioPolicyManager, AAudio, OpenSL ES, Spatializer), the media pipeline (MediaCodec, MediaExtractor, NuPlayer, codec2 HAL), or the sensor stack (SensorService, sensor HAL, batching, wake-up sensors). Chapters 12–17. metadata: author: 'utzcoz' version: '2026.06.24' last-updated: '2026-06-24'
AOSP Part IV — Native Services & Media
The native daemons that run continuously and own audio, video, sensors, and the graphics composition pipeline.
Chapters in this Part
12-native-services.md— surfaceflinger, audioserver, mediaserver, cameraserver process layout, init triggers, AIDL boundaries, HAL clients13-graphics-render-pipeline.md— SurfaceFlinger, BufferQueue, GraphicBuffer, OpenGL ES / Vulkan / Skia / HWUI, RenderThread, layer composition14-animation-system.md— Choreographer, ValueAnimator/ObjectAnimator, RenderNode animations, dynamic animation, shared-element transitions15-audio-system.md— AudioFlinger, AudioPolicyManager, audio HAL, AAudio/OpenSL ES, spatial audio (Spatializer), routing rules16-media-and-camera.md— MediaCodec, MediaExtractor, NuPlayer, codec2 HAL, camera service, image/video pipeline overview17-sensors.md— SensorService, sensor HAL, batching, wake-up sensors, FIFO and event delivery, sensor fusion
When to load which chapter
- Question is about which native daemons exist or how they boot →
12-native-services.md - Question mentions SurfaceFlinger, BufferQueue, GraphicBuffer, OpenGL/Vulkan/Skia/HWUI, RenderThread, composition →
13-graphics-render-pipeline.md - Question mentions Choreographer, animator classes, RenderNode animations, springs/flings →
14-animation-system.md - Question mentions AudioFlinger, AudioPolicyManager, AAudio, OpenSL ES, Spatializer →
15-audio-system.md - Question mentions MediaCodec, MediaExtractor, NuPlayer, codec2, camera service →
16-media-and-camera.md - Question mentions sensors, SensorService, wake-up sensors, batching →
17-sensors.md