I got a need to stop (or mute at least) music/sound that is played in iPhone.
Important: I want my app will do that it even if is in background-state!
I'm using:
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory: AVAudioSessionCategorySoloAmbient error:nil]];
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setActive: YES];
The issue is that everything is being stopped, even streaming music from some other app, but only if app is in FOREGROUND. As wrote before, I want it to be working also in BACKGROUND.
I did simple research and realized it's somehow possible, these apps prove:
App Store - Streaming Music Timer or
App Store - Music Sleep Timer
I guess my solution with SoloAmbient can be not so perfect and it may be a wrong way.
Does anybody know how could I stop/sleep/pause/mute global music even if app will be in background state?
These apps I pointed out are doing basically this thing...
You need to enable the audio background mode.
Add the Required Background Modes key to your app's Info.plist and add the App Plays Audio key to it.
See this tutorial for more.
EDIT Also, you probably want the AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback category, not AVAudioSessionCategorySoloAmbient
Related
Apple resources contain a lot of informations but there's one thing which I can't clearly understand reading about audio and notification.
Is it possible to make an app, running in background which produce sound (even if phone is locked and/or silenced) and when it's happend user must solve eg. equation to turn it off?
p.s. For now I mostly use Cordova framework but Obj-C tip will also be nice.
Yes it is posssible.
You can use UILocalNotification for this.
Also apple allows apps that are playing music in background.
Please check these links for the background task feature:
ManagingYourApplicationsFlow
ios multitasking background tasks
How to handle background audio playing while ios device is locked or on another
You can change Local Notifications for NSTimers (keeping them alive in inactive mode with https://github.com/mruegenberg/MMPDeepSleepPreventer) and calculate the time interval for each alarm. That way you can then play an audio even with the screen locked and the sound off pasting this in your - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions:
// Let the sound run with the screen blocked
NSError *setCategoryErr = nil;
NSError *activationErr = nil;
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory: AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback error:&setCategoryErr];
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setActive:YES error:&activationErr];
But you will have some problems:
The app must be playing an audio file each 10 seconds so it doesn´t deep sleep and kills all NSTimers.
Apple could reject your app for doing so.
You can´t close the app with the home button, otherwise, it won´t work.
You must open the app every time you need to use the alarm (you can´t schedule and forget).
When the alarm fires, you only have the lock screen of the iPhone and need to unlock it first and then stop the alarm from inside the app.
In Apple they don´t want competitors for their alarm clock app, that's for sure! Almost all the alarm clock apps you see in the App Store use this poor approach.
I have a codebase which plays audio and video perfectly. I have converted that into a small framework and started using it as a part of another code. When i do this, there is no audio output.... I am unable to hear any audio output while it is being played. All the Audio player delegate methods are being called but there is no sound. The same is happening with Videos as well. All the videos are being played with out sound. Its like watching a silent movie.... Any ideas? I am using AVAudioPlayer for playing audio files and MPMoviePlayerController for playing videos.
edit : This happens only on device. It works all fine in simulator
Just came across this post, I was doing the same thing, and actually AVAduioSession is needed to play audio thru speaker/headset. So having AVAudioSession is a must.
//REALLY NEED THIS LINE FOR MUSIC TO PLAY TO SPEAKER
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback error:nil];
and for background playing, add these 2 lines and change setting in plist to allow background mode
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setActive: YES error: nil];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] beginReceivingRemoteControlEvents];
So stupid of me.... The problem was with the volume button on iPad. The volume button in iPad with iOS 5 has some weird bug. It does not update itself when we toggle the button between screen lock and audio output. I guess this is bug from apple and filed a bug. Hope they solve this in their next update.
How can i set volume of device(in silent mode) when UILocalNotification is generated when application is in background? I am working on alarm app, so sound has to be played in silent mode too and i am handling app alarm using local notification.
Badly stuck in this issue, not able to play alarm in silent mode.
Please help..
It is simply not possible. The UILocalNotification popup and sound are generated by another system process, and that process observes the device silent mode, so it won't play the notification sound if the device is on silent.
if you want your alarm clock app to play the alarm sound even when device is in silent mode, you will have to play the alarm sound right from your app. To do that, you will need to keep your app running in the background, then you will have to play the alarm sound file while in the background. The later can be done by specifying "audio" that the "Required background modes" property in your info.plist (you will have to add that property to your plist file)
Now, using AVAudioPlayer, there is a way to play sound even when device is silent by setting the Audio session category like this:
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory: AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback error: nil];
Hope this helps.
You have to realize that local notifications are triggered even your app is killed. That leads me to conclusion that it is probably not possible to do that.
But you can try that like this:
UInt32 sessionCategory = kAudioSessionCategory_AmbientSound;
AudioSessionSetProperty(kAudioSessionProperty_AudioCategory, sizeof(sessionCategory), &sessionCategory);
right before you make your audio session active.
I am developing an iPhone app that translates voice to text.
The component for the Transcribe is third-party.
Until now everything worked just fine.
Today I tried playing a sound (.wav file) after making the Transcription and noticed that I cannot play anything (by AVAudio or system sound). After debugging I found out that this is happening after initing the third-party component; so I think that the component is not releasing something that belongs to the system audio.
My question is : Is there a way to force the iPhone play the sound that I want?
Have you tried setting AVAudioSession category?
NSError *err = nil;
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback error:&err];
Maybe other category will work, for example AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayAndRecord
The best way IMO is to save AVAudioSession state (its category, for example) before using your third-party component and restore state afterwards.
I noticed that some apps programmatically mute itunes (if its running) at launching. How is this achieved? I have a game with background music and would like to either stop itunes or get at least a message that itunes is playing so that I can stop the game's background music.
thx,
marc.
You don't need to. With Audio Session you can decide how the audio should behave.
From the Audio Session Programming Guide:
With the audio session interface, you
specify aspects of your application’s
audio behavior and configure it to
live harmoniously within the iPhone
audio environment. You start by asking
yourself questions such as these:
Do you want your audio to be silenced by the Ring/Silent switch?
The answer is probably “yes” if audio
is not essential to using your
application successfully. (Users will
appreciate being able to run your game
in a meeting with no one the wiser.)
Do you want iPod audio to continue playing when your audio
starts? This could be appropriate for
a virtual piano, letting users play
along to songs in their libraries.
You’d want iPod audio to stop,
however, for a streaming radio
application.
You probably want this:
UInt32 sessionCategory = kAudioSessionCategory_SoloAmbientSound;
AudioSessionSetProperty (
kAudioSessionProperty_AudioCategory,
sizeof (sessionCategory),
&sessionCategory
);
For more behaviour types, check the Audio Session Categories, or read the entire Audio Session Programming Guide.
I had the opposite problem. My app plays a short video with no sound after launch. This caused the iTunes music playing in the background to mute.
In order to keep the music playing, I add this in the applicationDidFinishLaunching:
NSError* error;
[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory: AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient error: &error];
if (error) NSLog(#"Unable to configure Audio");