It appears that Tidal Masters are now streaming via the Tidal app on my LG V30 phone. Masters albums have an M icon and it’s possible to select a “Master” streaming quality level. It seems to be restricted to streaming only and not downloaded files - if I download an album it reverts to the HiFi icon.!
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Hi Jeremy. It’s your phone - so far that LG model is the only MQA certified mobile device available. Tidal masters are MQA encoded and the phone can unfold the MQA stream.
Yeah not happening on iOS and nothing in the app release notes about masters for iOS either…so might be quite device specific
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It seems to be a recent update, as I haven’t noticed the Masters option before. Or I’m just slow 
. Cheers.
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This seems to have rolled out to either all android or more phones, my 1+6 just got it. I don’t know what it means happens when I play something, does it unfold in the app, or something else?
Apparently it has rolled out to all Android smartphones: http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/post/ces-2019
The news release suggests it is available via the Tidal app and the “USB Audio Player PRO application now offers an MQA decoder for Android smartphones. The decoder is available via an in-app purchase”.
Maybe this will nudge Google to finally fix hires on the CCA?
So if I understand this correctly, the master versions offer no improvement over the hifi version, as they won’t be getting the any unfolds, unless you have a LG phone or want to use USB Audio Player PRO and buy the licence?
This press release (http://www.mqa.co.uk/customer/news/post/tidal-masters-android) states “With the latest update, the TIDAL Android app will now include the MQA decoder.” So presumably that means an unfold in the Tidal app up to 24/96.
Using USB Audio Player Pro on the LG V30 I get the full resolution up to 24/192 without the in-app purchase.