diff --git a/include/tinycompress/tinycompress.h b/include/tinycompress/tinycompress.h
index 9867afc..40de69a 100644
--- a/include/tinycompress/tinycompress.h
+++ b/include/tinycompress/tinycompress.h
@@ -130,7 +130,15 @@
 /*
  * compress_write: write data to the compress stream
  * return bytes written on success, negative on error
- * this is a blocking call
+ * By default this is a blocking call and will not return
+ * until all bytes have been written or there was a
+ * write error.
+ * If non-blocking mode has been enabled with compress_nonblock(),
+ * this function will write all bytes that can be written without
+ * blocking and will then return the number of bytes successfully
+ * written. If the return value is not an error and is < size
+ * the caller can use compress_wait() to block until the driver
+ * is ready for more data.
  *
  * @compress: compress stream to be written to
  * @buf: pointer to data
@@ -141,6 +149,13 @@
 /*
  * compress_read: read data from the compress stream
  * return bytes read on success, negative on error
+ * By default this is a blocking call and will block until
+ * size bytes have been written or there was a read error.
+ * If non-blocking mode was enabled using compress_nonblock()
+ * the behaviour will change to read only as many bytes as
+ * are currently available (if no bytes are available it
+ * will return immediately). The caller can then use
+ * compress_wait() to block until more bytes are available.
  *
  * @compress: compress stream from where data is to be read
  * @buf: pointer to data buffer
@@ -242,6 +257,12 @@
  */
 void compress_set_max_poll_wait(struct compress *compress, int milliseconds);
 
+/* Enable or disable non-blocking mode for write and read */
+void compress_nonblock(struct compress *compress, int nonblock);
+
+/* Wait for ring buffer to ready for next read or write */
+int compress_wait(struct compress *compress, int timeout_ms);
+
 int is_compress_running(struct compress *compress);
 
 int is_compress_ready(struct compress *compress);
@@ -267,4 +288,6 @@
 #define SNDRV_PCM_RATE_176400		(1<<11)		/* 176400Hz */
 #define SNDRV_PCM_RATE_192000		(1<<12)		/* 192000Hz */
 
+/* utility functions */
+unsigned int compress_get_alsa_rate(unsigned int rate);
 #endif