Editing FLAC (section)

== Adoption and implementations ==
{{see also|List of hardware and software that supports FLAC|Comparison of video container formats#Audio coding formats support}}

=== Reference implementation ===
The reference implementation of FLAC is implemented as the ''libFLAC'' core encoder & decoder library, with the main distributable program <code>flac</code> being the reference implementation of the libFLAC API. This [[codec]] API is also available in C++ as libFLAC++. The reference implementation of FLAC compiles on many platforms, including most [[Unix]] (such as [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]], [[BSD]]) and [[Unix-like]] (including [[Linux]]), [[Windows]], [[BeOS]], and [[OS/2]] operating systems. There are build-systems for [[autoconf]]/[[automake]], [[MSVC]], [[Watcom C]], and [[Xcode]]. There is currently no [[multicore]] support in libFLAC, but utilities such as [[GNU parallel]] and various graphical frontends can be used to spin up multiple instances of the encoder.

=== Hardware and software ===
FLAC playback support in portable audio devices and dedicated audio systems is limited compared to formats such as MP3<ref>{{cite web |url=https://xiph.org/flac/links.html#hardware |title=Links |website=FLAC |access-date=24 March 2009}}</ref> or uncompressed [[PCM]]. FLAC support is included by default in [[Windows 10]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Audio snobs rejoice: Windows 10 will have system-wide FLAC support |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/2852595/audio-snobs-rejoice-windows-10-will-have-system-wide-flac-support.html |website=PC World |access-date=10 July 2015}}</ref> [[Android (operating system)|Android]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://developer.android.com/media/platform/supported-formats |title=Android Supported Media Formats |date=27 September 2024 |website=Android.com |access-date=20 December 2024}}</ref> [[macOS]] and [[iOS]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/06/09/ios-11-brings-lossless-flac-audio-to-iphone-and-ipad/ |title=iOS 11 brings lossless FLAC audio playback to iPhone and iPad |date=9 June 2017 |website=idownloadblog.com |access-date=26 September 2017}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ FLAC support by different operating systems
|-
! scope="row" | 
! [[Microsoft Windows]]
! [[macOS]]
! [[Android (operating system)|Android]]
! [[iOS]]
|-
! scope="row" | Codec support
| {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}} || {{yes}}
|-
! scope="row" | Container support
| FLAC (.flac) <br/>[[Matroska]] (.mka, .mkv) <br /> [[Ogg]] (.oga)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wiki.xiph.org/MIME_Types_and_File_Extensions |title=MIME Types and File Extensions - XiphWiki }}</ref>
| FLAC (.flac) <br/>[[Core Audio Format]] (.caf)
| FLAC (.flac)
| FLAC (.flac) <br/>[[Core Audio Format]] (.caf)
|-
! scope="row" | Notes
| <p>Support introduced in [[Windows 10]].</p>
<p>[[Windows Media Player (2022)]] also supports FLAC in an Ogg container for live streams (e.g. [[Icecast]] [[internet radio]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,117036.0.html |title=FLAC vs Ogg FLAC }}</ref></p>
| Support introduced in macOS 10.13 [[macOS High Sierra|High Sierra]].
| <p>Support introduced in Android 3.1.</p>
<p> Android natively supports regular FLAC (.flac), but not Ogg FLAC (.oga).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/36906426 |title=The Android Platform Doesn't Fully Support OGG Container Formats (OGA) [36906426] - Visible to Public - Issue Tracker }}</ref> However, support for both regular FLAC and Ogg FLAC were later added to the [[Files (Google)]] file manager.</p>
| Support introduced in iOS 11 (but depends on hardware).
|}
Various other containers are supported, independently from used operating system, depending on used playback software.

=== Use in archives ===
The standardization process of the FLAC format into {{IETF RFC|9639}} was driven by the specific use case of archival and preservation in mind.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/charter-ietf-cellar/|title=Codec Encoding for LossLess Archiving and Realtime transmission}}</ref> The [[National Archives and Records Administration]] has FLAC listed as a preferred format for digital audio.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/transfer-guidance-tables.html|title=Appendix A: Tables of File Formats {{pipe}} National Archives}}</ref>