Dive into the technical aspects of audio on your device, including codecs, format support, and customization options.

Audio Documentation

Posts under Audio subtopic

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No mic capture on iOS 18.5
Hello! We stumbled upon a problem with our karaoke app where user on iPhone 16e/iOS 18.5 has problem with mic capture, other users cannot hear him. The mic capture is working fine on 17.5, 16.8. Maybe there is something else we need when configuring AVAudioSession for iOS 18.5? Currently it's set up like this: override func viewDidLoad() { super.viewDidLoad() UIApplication.shared.isIdleTimerDisabled = true mRoomId = appDelegate.getRoomId() let audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() try! audioSession.setCategory(.playAndRecord, mode: .voiceChat, options: [.defaultToSpeaker]) try! audioSession.setPreferredSampleRate(48000) try! audioSession.setActive(true, options: []) }
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250
Nov ’25
AVPlayerItem. externalMetadata not available
According to the documentation (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avplayeritem/externalmetadata), AVPlayerItem should have an externalMetadata property. However it does not appear to be visible to my app. When I try, I get: Value of type 'AVPlayerItem' has no member 'externalMetadata' Documentation states iOS 12.2+; I am building with a minimum deployment target of iOS 18. Code snippet: import Foundation import AVFoundation /// ... in function ... // create metadata as described in https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2022/110338 var title = AVMutableMetadataItem() title.identifier = .commonIdentifierAlbumName title.value = "My Title" as NSString? title.extendedLanguageTag = "und" var playerItem = await AVPlayerItem(asset: composition) playerItem.externalMetadata = [ title ]
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72
Apr ’25
AVQueuePlayer/AVPlayer rate property is not being changed everytime I assign a new value to it.
I have used AVQueuePlayer in my music app to play sequence of audios from a remote server, this how I have defined things my player in my ViewModel Variables private var cancellables = Set() private let audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() private var avQueuePlayer: AVQueuePlayer? @Published var playbackSpeed: Float = 1.0 before starting playback, I am making sure that audio session is set properly, the code snippet used for that is do { try audioSession.setCategory(.playback, mode: .default, options: []) try audioSession.setActive(true, options: []) } catch { return } and this is the function I am using to update playback speed func updatePlaybackSpeed(_ newSpeed: Float){ if newSpeed > 0.0, newSpeed <= 2.0{ playbackSpeed = newSpeed avQueuePlayer?.rate = newSpeed print("requested speed is (newSpeed) and actual speed is (String(describing: avQueuePlayer?.rate))") } } sometimes whatever speed is set, player seems to play at the same speed as it was set, e.g. Once I got "requested speed is 1.5 and actual speed is 1.5", and player also seemed to play at the speed of 1.5 but another time I got "requested speed is 2.0 and actual speed is 2.0", but player still seemed to play at the speed of 1.0 to observe changes in rate, I used this **private func observeRateChanges() { guard let avQueuePlayer = self.avQueuePlayer else { return } NotificationCenter.default.publisher(for: AVQueuePlayer.rateDidChangeNotification, object: avQueuePlayer) .compactMap { $0.userInfo?[AVPlayer.rateDidChangeReasonKey] as? AVPlayer.RateDidChangeReason } .sink { reason in switch reason { case .appBackgrounded: print("The app transitioned to the background.") case .audioSessionInterrupted: print("The system interrupts the app’s audio session.") case .setRateCalled: print("The app set the player’s rate.") case .setRateFailed: print("An attempt to change the player’s rate failed.") default: break } } .store(in: &cancellables) }** when rate was set properly, I got this "The app set the player’s rate." from the above function, but when it wasn't, I got this "An attempt to change the player’s rate failed.," now I am not able to understand why rate is not being set, and if it gave "requested speed is 2.0 and actual speed is 2.0" from updatePlaybackSpeed function, why does the player seems to play with the speed of 1.0?
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Feb ’25
Can a Location-Based Audio AR Experience Run in the Background on iOS?
Hi everyone! I’ve developed a location-based Audio AR app in Unity with FMOD &amp; Resonance Audio and AirPods Pro Head-Tracking to create a ubiquitous augmented soundscape experience. Think of it as an audio version of Pokémon Go, but with a more precise location requirement to ensure spatial audio is placed correctly. I want this experience to run in the background on iOS, but from what I’ve gathered, it seems Unity doesn’t support this well. So, I’m considering developing a Swift version instead. Since this is primarily for research purposes, privacy concerns are not a major issue in my case. However, I’ve come across some potential challenges: Real-time precise location updates – Can iOS provide fully instantaneous, high-accuracy location updates in the background? Continuous real-time data processing – Can an app continuously process spatial audio, head-tracking, and location data while running in the background? I’m not sure if newer iOS versions have improved in these areas or if there are workarounds to achieve this. Would this kind of experience be feasible to run in the background on iOS? Any insights or pointers would be greatly appreciated! I’m very new to iOS development, so apologies if this is a basic question. Thanks in advance!
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86
Apr ’25
FaceTime Screen-Share Audio and Video Experience
FaceTime’s screen-share audio balance is insanely absurd right now. Whenever I share media, the system audio that gets sent through FaceTime is a tiny whisper even at full volume (or even when connected to my speaker or headphones). The moment anyone on the call makes any noise at all, the shared audio ducks so hard it disappears, while the voice (or rustling or air conditioning noise) spikes to painful levels. It’s impossible to watch or listen to anything together. Also, the feature where FaceTime would shrink to a square during screen-sharing has been completely removed. That was a good feature and I'm really confused why it's gone. Now, the FaceTime window stays as a long rectangle that covers part of the content I'm trying to share (unless I do full screen tile, but then I can't pull up any other windows during the call) and can't be made smaller than about a third of the screen. You can't resize the window or adjust its dimensions, so it ends up blocking the actual media you're trying to watch. Here are some feature requests/fixes that would greatly improve the FaceTime screen-share experience: Option to adjust the shared media volume independently of call audio. Disable/toggle the extreme automatic audio docking while screen-sharing Reintroduce the minimized “floating square” mode or allow full manual resizing and repositioning of the FaceTime window during screen-share sessions. Overall, this setup makes FaceTime screen-sharing basically unusable. The audio balance is so inconsistent that it’s easier to switch to Zoom or Google Meet, which both handle shared sound correctly and let you move the call window out of the way. Until these issues are fixed, there’s no practical reason to use FaceTime for shared viewing at all.
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193
Nov ’25
macOS Tahoe: Can't setup AVAudioEngine with playthrough
Hi, I'm trying to setup a AVAudioEngine for USB Audio recording and monitoring playthrough. As soon as I try to setup playthough I get an error in the console: AVAEInternal.h:83 required condition is false: [AVAudioEngineGraph.mm:1361:Initialize: (IsFormatSampleRateAndChannelCountValid(outputHWFormat))] Any ideas how to fix it? // Input-Device setzen try? setupInputDevice(deviceID: inputDevice) let input = audioEngine.inputNode // Stereo-Format erzwingen let inputHWFormat = input.inputFormat(forBus: 0) let stereoFormat = AVAudioFormat(commonFormat: inputHWFormat.commonFormat, sampleRate: inputHWFormat.sampleRate, channels: 2, interleaved: inputHWFormat.isInterleaved) guard let format = stereoFormat else { throw AudioError.deviceSetupFailed(-1) } print("Input format: \(inputHWFormat)") print("Forced stereo format: \(format)") audioEngine.attach(monitorMixer) audioEngine.connect(input, to: monitorMixer, format: format) // MonitorMixer -> MainMixer (Output) // Problem here, format: format also breaks. audioEngine.connect(monitorMixer, to: audioEngine.mainMixerNode, format: nil)
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168
Oct ’25
Track changes in the browser tab's audibility property.
Hi! I am writing a browser extension that allows you to control the playback of media content on a music service website. Unfortunately Safari does not support tracking changes to the audible property in an event tabs.onUpdated. Is there an alternative to this event? I'm looking for a way to track when the automatic inference engine interrupts playback on a music service website. That you.
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71
Apr ’25
How to record voice, auto-transcribe, translate (auto-detect input language), and play back translated audio on same device in iOS Swift?
Hi everyone 👋 I’m building an iOS app in Swift where I want to do the following: Record the user’s voice Transcribe the spoken sentence (speech-to-text) Auto-detect the spoken language Translate it to another language selected by the user (e.g., English → Spanish or Hindi → English) Speak back (text-to-speech) the translated text on the same device Is this possible to record via phone mic and play the transcribe voice into headphone's audio?
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192
Oct ’25
AVSpeechUtterance stutters in CarPlay when connected to a BT headset
We are currently working on a CarPlay navigation app and so far everything is working well except for speaking turn notifications. Our TTS implementation works fine on the phone and works fine on CarPlay if the voice is spoken over the speaker in the car. If users connect a BT headset to the car and listen through that headset, then the voice commands are chopped up / stutter. Why would users use BT headset? Well, we are working on a motorcycle app, and there are no speakers usually on a motorcycle. It sounds like the BT channel is opened and closed repeatedly for every character / word spoken. This happens on different CarPlay devices and different Bluetooth headsets, we have reports from multiple users that they find this behavior annoying and that other apps work fine. Is this a known issue? Are there possible workaround?
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67
Apr ’25
How to detect when iOS Camera app starts video recording (with Allow Audio Playback ON)?
Since iOS 18, the system setting “Allow Audio Playback” (enabled by default) allows third-party app audio to continue playing while the user is recording video with the Camera app. This has created a problem for the app I’m developing. ➡️ The problem: My app plays continuous audio in both foreground and background states. If the user starts recording video using the iOS Camera app, the app’s audio — still playing in the background — gets captured in the video — obviously an unintended behavior. Yes, the user could stop the app manually before starting the video recording, but that can’t be guaranteed. As a developer, I need a way to stop the app’s audio before the video recording begins. So far, I haven’t found a reliable way to detect when video recording starts if ‘Allow Audio Playback’ is ON. ➡️ What I’ve tried: — AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification → doesn’t fire — devicesChangedEventStream → not triggered I don’t want to request mic permission (app doesn’t use mic). also, disabling the app from playing audio in the background isn’t an option as it is a crucial part of the user experience ➡️ What I need: A reliable, supported way to detect when the Camera app begins video recording, without requiring mic access — so I can stop audio and avoid unintentional overlap with the user’s recordings. Any official guidance, workarounds, or AVFoundation techniques would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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227
Aug ’25
How to disable the built-in speakers and microphone on a Mac
I need to implement a solution through an API or custom driver to completely block out the built-in speakers and microphone of Mac, because I need other apps to use specified external devices as audio input and output. Is there a way to achieve this requirement? What I mean is that even in system preferences, it should not be possible to choose the built-in microphone and speakers; only my external device can be used.
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83
Apr ’25
AVAudioSession automatically sets the tablet audio volume to 50% when recording audio.
Environment→ ・Device: iPad 10th generation ・OS:**iOS18.3.2 I'm using AVAudioSession to record sound in my application. But I recently came to realize that when the app starts a recording session on a tablet, OS automatically sets the tablet volume to 50% and when after recording ends, it doesn't change back to the previous volume level before starting the recording. So I would like to know whether this is an OS default behavior or a bug? If it's a default behavior, I much appreciate if I can get a link to the documentation.
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100
Apr ’25
SpeechTranscriber extremely slow (14+ seconds) despite proper locale allocation and optimization
Using the official SwiftTranscriptionSampleApp from WWDC 2025, speech transcription takes 14+ seconds from audio input to first result, making it unusable for real-time applications. Environment iOS: 26.0 Beta Xcode: Beta 5 Device: iPhone 16 pro Sample App: Official Apple SwiftTranscriptionSampleApp from WWDC 2025 Configuration Tested Locale: en-US (properly allocated with AssetInventory.allocate(locale:)) and es-ES Setup: All optimizations applied (preheating, high priority, model retention) I started testing in my own app to replace SFSpeech API and include speech detection but after long fights with documentation (this part is quite terrible TBH) I tested the example (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/speech/bringing-advanced-speech-to-text-capabilities-to-your-app) and saw same results. I added some logs to check the specific time: 🎙️ [20:30:41.532] ✅ Analyzer started successfully - ready to receive audio! 🎙️ [20:30:41.532] Listening for transcription results... 🎙️ [20:30:56.342] 🚀 FIRST TRANSCRIPTION RESULT after 14.810s: 'Hello' (isFinal: false) Questions Is this expected performance for iOS 26 Beta, because old SFSpeech is far faster? Are there additional optimization steps for SpeechTranscriber? Should we expect significant performance improvements in later betas?
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186
Aug ’25
How to inform Logic Pro that AU view does not have a fixed aspect ratio?
I have an AUv3 that passes all validation and can be loaded into Logic Pro without issue. The UI for the plug in can be any aspect ratio but Logic insists on presenting it in a view with a fixed aspect ratio. That is when resizing, both the height and width are resized. I have never managed to work out what it is I need to do specify to Logic to allow the user to resize width or height independently of each other. Can anyone tell me what I need to specify in the AU code that will inform Logic that the view can be resized from any side of the window/panel?
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Apr ’25
Unexpected AVAudioSession behavior after iOS 18.5 causing audio loss in VoIP calls
After updating to iOS 18.5, we’ve observed that outgoing audio from our app intermittently stops being transmitted during VoIP calls using AVAudioSession configured with .playAndRecord and .voiceChat. The session is set active without errors, and interruptions are handled correctly, yet audio capture suddenly ceases mid-call. This was not observed in earlier iOS versions (≤ 18.4). We’d like to confirm if there have been any recent changes in AVAudioSession, CallKit, or related media handling that could affect audio input behavior during long-running calls. func configureForVoIPCall() throws { try setCategory( .playAndRecord, mode: .voiceChat, options: [.allowBluetooth, .allowBluetoothA2DP, .defaultToSpeaker]) try setActive(true) }
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189
Aug ’25
Intermittent Memory Leak Indicated in Simulator When Using AVAudioEngine with mainMixerNode Only
Hello, I'm observing an intermittent memory leak being reported in the iOS Simulator when initializing and starting an AVAudioEngine. Even with minimal setup—just attaching a single AVAudioPlayerNode and connecting it to the mainMixerNode—Xcode's memory diagnostics and Instruments sometimes flag a leak. Here is a simplified version of the code I'm using: // This function is called when the user taps a button in the view controller: #import "ViewController.h" @interface ViewController () @end @implementation ViewController - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; } - (IBAction)myButtonAction:(id)sender { NSLog(@"Test"); soundCreate(); } @end // media.m static AVAudioEngine *audioEngine = nil; void soundCreate(void) { if (audioEngine != nil) return; [[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient error:nil]; [[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setActive:YES error:nil]; audioEngine = [[AVAudioEngine alloc] init]; AVAudioPlayerNode* playerNode = [[AVAudioPlayerNode alloc] init]; [audioEngine attachNode:playerNode]; [audioEngine connect:playerNode to:(AVAudioNode *)[audioEngine mainMixerNode] format:nil]; [audioEngine startAndReturnError:nil]; } In the memory leak report, the following call stack is repeated, seemingly in a loop: ListenerMap::InsertEvent(XAudioUnitEvent const&, ListenerBinding*) AudioToolboxCore ListenerMap::AddParameter(AUListener*, void*, XAudioUnitEvent const&) AudioToolboxCore AUListenerAddParameter AudioToolboxCore addOrRemoveParameterListeners(OpaqueAudioComponentInstance*, AUListenerBase*, AUParameterTree*, bool) AudioToolboxCore 0x180178ddf
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109
Apr ’25
AudioUnit (AUv2) Session Compatibility After Adding MIDI Support
Hi there! We have a suite of AudioUnit v2 plugins that have been shipped for some time as aufx plugins, and we are looking into MIDI-related platform upgrades, so we need a way to update these plugins to request MIDI from Logic (and other AU hosts) but avoid changing our AU type and subtype so we don't break existing sessions. Any ideas on how we can do this?
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92
Mar ’25
MusicKit - Skipping Forwards or Backwards does not update
Hello everyone, I am working on an app that allows you to review your own music using Apple Music. Currently I am running into an issue with the skipping forwards and backwards outside of the app. How it should work: When skipping forward or backwards on the lock or home screen of an iPhone, the next or previous song on an album should play and the information should change to reflect that in the app. If you play a song in Apple Music, you can see a Now Playing view in the lock screen. When you skip forward or backwards, it will do either action and it would reflect that when you see a little frequency icon on artwork image of a song. What it's doing: When skipping forward or backwards on the lock or home screen of an iPhone, the next or previous song is reflected outside of the app, but not in the app. When skipping a song outside of the app, it works correctly to head to the next song. But when I return to the app, it is not reflected NOTE: I am not using MusicKit variables such as Track, Album to display the songs. Since I want to grab the songs and review them I need a rating so I created my own that grabs the MusicItemID, name, artist(s), etc. NOTE: I am using ApplicationMusicPlayer.shared Is there a way to get the song to reflect in my app? (If its easier, a simple example of it would be nice. No need to create an entire xprod file)
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86
Apr ’25