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Case-ID: 11089799
When using AVSpeechUtterance and setting it to play in Mandarin, if Siri is set to Cantonese on iOS 18, it will be played in Cantonese. There is no such issue on iOS 17 and 16.
1.let utterance = AVSpeechUtterance(string: textView.text)
let voice = AVSpeechSynthesisVoice(language: "zh-CN")
utterance.voice = voice
2.In the phone settings, Siri is set to Cantonese
Audio
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I'm working on adding CarPlay support to an audio app and am running into an issue. Occasionally, when a user opens the app from CarPlay while the main app scene is either not connected or is currently in the background, I will receive an error when attempting to activate the audio session. The code below mimics my setup:
do {
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .spokenAudio)
try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)
} catch {
print(error) // NSOSStatusErrorDomain - 560557684: Session activation failed
}
That error code maps to AVAudioSession.ErrorCode.cannotInterruptOthers.
Once in this state, all subsequent attempts to play different pieces of content will fail. However, things will start working normally if the user opens the app on their phone and tries again from CarPlay (while the app is in the foreground on their phone).
I'm not sure why it would behave this way and want to note that I do have the audio background mode capability enabled.
Has anyone else encountered this? Are there any workarounds or changes I could make to prevent this from happening?
AVAudioFormat has no Swift concurrency annotations but the documentation states "Instances of this class are immutable."
This made me always assume it was safe to pass AVAudioFormat instances around. Is this the case? If so can it be marked as Sendable? Am I missing something?
I'm experiencing audio issues while developing for visionOS when playing PCM data through AVAudioPlayerNode.
Issue Description:
Occasionally, the speaker produces loud popping sounds or distorted noise
This occurs during PCM audio playback using AVAudioPlayerNode
The issue is intermittent and doesn't happen every time
Technical Details:
Platform: visionOS
Device: vision pro / simulator
Audio Framework: AVFoundation
Audio Node: AVAudioPlayerNode
Audio Format: PCM
I would appreciate any insights on:
Common causes of audio distortion with AVAudioPlayerNode
Recommended best practices for handling PCM playback in visionOS
Potential configuration issues that might cause this behavior
Has anyone encountered similar issues or found solutions? Any guidance would be greatly helpful.
Thank you in advance!
Hello,
I have been running into issues with setting nowPlayingInfo information, specifically updating information for CarPlay and the CPNowPlayingTemplate.
When I start playback for an item, I see lock screen information update as expected, along with the CarPlay now playing information.
However, the playing items are books with collections of tracks. When I select a new track(chapter) within the book, I set the MPMediaItemPropertyTitle to the new chapter name. This change is reflected correctly on the lock screen, but almost never appears correctly on the CarPlay CPNowPlayingTemplate. The previous chapter title remains set and never updates.
I see "Application exceeded audio metadata throttle limit." in the debug console fairly frequently.
From that a I figured that I need to minimize updates to the nowPlayingInfo dictionary. What I did:
I store the metadata dictionary in a local dictionary and only set values in the main nowPlayingInfo dictionary when they are different from the current value.
I kick off the nowPlayingInfo update via a task that initially sleeps for around 2 seconds (not a final value, just for my current testing). If a previous Task is active, it gets cancelled, so that only one update can happen within that time window.
Neither of these things have been sufficient. I can switch between different titles entirely and the information updates (including cover art).
But when I switch chapters within a title, the MPMediaItemPropertyTitle continues to get dropped. I know the value is getting set, because it updates on the lock screen correctly.
In total, I have 12 keys I update for info, though with the above changes, usually 2-4 of them actually get updated with high frequency.
I am running out of ideas to satisfy the throttling thresholds to accurately display metadata. I could use some advice.
Thanks.
Hi, when using ApplicationMusicPlayer from MusicKit my app automatically gets the media controls on the lock screen: Play/ Pause, Skip Buttons, Playback Position etc.
I would like to customize these. Tried a bunch of things, e.g. using MPRemoteCommandCenter. So far I haven't had any success.
Does anyone know how I can customize the media controls of ApplicationMusicPlayer.
Thank you.
I am developing an iOS app that needs to play spoken audio on demand from a server, while ducking the audio of background music from another app (e.g., SoundtrackYourBrand or Apple Music). This must work even when the app is in the background, and the server dictates when and what audio is played. Ideally, the message should be played within a minute of the server requesting it.
Current Attempt & Observations
I initially tried using Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) silent notifications to send a URL to an audio file, which the app would then play using AVPlayer.
This works consistently when the app is active, but in the background, it only works about 60% of the time.
In cases where it fails, iOS ducks the background music (e.g., from SoundtrackYourBrand) but never plays the spoken audio.
Interestingly, when I play the audio without enabling audio ducking, it seems to work 100% of the time from my limited testing, even in the background.
The app has background modes enabled for Audio, Background Fetch, and Remote Notifications.
Best Approach to Achieve This?
I’d like guidance on the best Apple-compliant approach to reliably play audio on command from the server, even when the app is in the background. Some possible paths:
Ensuring the app remains active in the background – Are there recommended ways to prevent the app from getting suspended, such as background tasks, a special background mode, or a persistent connection to the server?
Alternative triggering mechanisms – Would something like VoIP, Push-to-Talk, or another background service be better suited for this use case?
Built-in iOS speech synthesis (AVSpeechSynthesizer) – If playing external audio is unreliable, would generating speech dynamically from text be a more robust approach?
Streaming audio instead of sending a URL – Could continuous streaming from the server keep the app active and allow playback at the right moment?
I want to ensure the solution is reliable and works 100% of the time when needed. Any recommendations on the best approach for this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time and guidance.
I noticed that while playing back the same tracks via MusicKit on different OSes I get different results regarding the audio files being streamed.
Playing back a lossless file with 24Bit 48kHz and watching the Console for RemotePlayerService I get:
on iPadOS: Lossless; groupID: audio-alac-stereo-48000-24; bitDepth: 24-bit; sampleRate: 48khz; codec: alac; channels: 2; layout: Stereo;
on macOS: Creating AudioQueue with format:'paac', framesPerPacket:1024, sampleRate:44100
While the iPad looks perfect, the Mac does not. Is there a way to fix this issue on macOS.
BTW: I switched the Audio-Midi Settings before, after and while the macOS App was lunched. I also switched to different output devices. I wasn't able to change the bad audio-output on the mac. I tested this under Sequoia 15.5 and Tahoe beta 1, Xcode 16.4 and 26 beta 1.
The AudioVariants of the Album/Tracks are .dolbyAtmos, .lossless, .lossyStereo
Apple Music displays Lossless 24 Bit/48 kHz ALAC when clicking on the playercontroll icon on macOS
I hope there are only some missing or misconfigured properties to get macOS up to par.
Thanks :-)
Hello,
We are developing a real-time speech recognition application and are utilizing AVAudioEngine with voice processing enabled on the input node. However, we have observed that enabling this mode interferes with the built-in iOS screen recording feature - specifically, the recorded video does not capture any audio when this mode is active.
Since we want users to be able to record their experience within our app, this issue significantly impacts our functionality. Is there a known workaround or recommended approach to ensure that both voice processing and screen recording can function simultaneously?
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
HI Guys,
I'm using Shazamkit in my IOS app and successfully capturing the currently playing track details, when using the devices (iPhone) built-in mic.
When I test with AirPods though, my app cannot both send the output to through the AirPods and capture that same output with the AirPods mic, for Shazamkit recognition.
I believe this must be possible, because the Shazamkit widget on IOS can do this.
Is it restricted in some way for third party apps?
If not, I'd appreciate some guidance on how to achieve this in Swift code.
Thanks in advance.
Hey folks, I'm running into an odd issue suddenly with an app that had a working MusicKit integration before.
I'm using ApplicationMusicPlayer to play Apple Music albums and songs. I'm testing on a physical device, signed in to Apple ID, and with a valid subscription. Apple Music via the first-party app works entirely fine on this device.
Attempting to play back any content at all gives the log:
<ICUserIdentityStoreACAccountBackend: 0x1070bf3e0> Failed to initialize primary apple account, error=Error Domain=ICError Code=-7013 "Client is not entitled to access account store" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=Client is not entitled to access account store}
[ICUserIdentityStore] - initializing account histories with activeAccountDSID = nil, activeLockerAccountDSID = nil, timestamp = 14605951908
[ICUserIdentityStore] Failed to fetch local store account with error: Error Domain=ICError Code=-7013 "Client is not entitled to access account store" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=Client is not entitled to access account store}.
The album artwork, track names, etc, all appear in the control center playback controls, but the music doesn't play. Trying to trigger playback with control center just results in it skipping to the next track, which doesn't play either.
This exact code used to work. I have the MusicKit service selected in Apple Connect. Since this isn't entitlement-based, I'm not sure how else to check that I'm set up correctly.
I've tried deleting/reinstalling the app, restarting the device, cleaning/rebuilding, and deleting DerivedData, to no avail.
Any help?
Running Xcode 16.4 (16F6), testing on iOS 18.5 (22F76)
iOS 26.0 (23A5276f) – Bluetooth Call Audio Issue
I’m experiencing a Bluetooth audio issue on iOS 26.0 (build 23A5276f). I cannot make or receive phone calls properly using Bluetooth devices — this affects both my car’s Bluetooth system and my AirPods Pro (2nd generation).
Notably:
Regular phone calls have no audio (either I can’t hear the other person, or they can’t hear me).
WhatsApp and other VoIP apps work fine with the same Bluetooth devices.
Media playback (music, video, etc.) works without issues over Bluetooth.
It seems this bug is limited to the native Phone app or the system audio routing for regular cellular calls. Please advise if this is a known issue or if a fix is expected in upcoming beta releases.
Hi everyone,
I'm running into an issue with AVAudioRecorder when handling interruptions such as phone calls or alarms.
Problem:
When the app is recording audio and an interruption occurs:
I handle the interruption with audioRecorder?.pause() inside AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification (on .began).
On .ended, I check for .shouldResume and call audioRecorder?.record() again.
The recorder resumes successfully, but only the audio recorded after the interruption is saved. The audio recorded before the interruption is lost, even though I'm using the same file URL and not recreating the recorder.
Repro:
Start a recording with AVAudioRecorder
Simulate a system interruption (e.g., incoming call)
Resume recording after the interruption
Stop and inspect the output audio file
Expected: Full audio (before and after interruption) should be saved.
Actual: Only the audio after interruption is saved; the earlier part is missing
Notes:
According to the documentation, calling .record() after .pause() should resume recording into the same file.
I confirmed that the file URL does not change, and I do not recreate the recorder instance.
No error is thrown by the system during this process.
This behavior happens consistently when the app is interrupted and resumed.
Question:
Is this a known issue? Is there a recommended workaround for preserving the full recording when interruptions happen?
Thanks in advance!
In my app I use AVAssetReaderTrackOutput to extract PCM audio from a user-provided video or audio file and display it as a waveform.
Recently a user reported that the waveform is not in sync with his video, and after receiving the video I noticed that the waveform is in fact double as long as the video duration, i.e. it shows the audio in slow-motion, so to speak.
Until now I was using
CMFormatDescription.audioStreamBasicDescription.mSampleRate
which for this particular user video returns 22'050. But in this case it seems that this value is wrong... because the audio file has two audio channels with different sample rates, as returned by
CMFormatDescription.audioFormatList.map({ $0.mASBD.mSampleRate })
The first channel has a sample rate of 44'100, the second one 22'050. If I use the first sample rate, the waveform is perfectly in sync with the video.
The problem is given by the fact that the ratio between the audio data length and the sample rate multiplied by the audio duration is 8, double the ratio for the first audio file (4). In the code below this ratio is given by
Double(length) / (sampleRate * asset.duration.seconds)
When commenting out the line with the sampleRate variable definition in the code below and uncommenting the following line, the ratios for both audio files are 4, which is the expected result. I would expect audioStreamBasicDescription to return the correct sample rate, i.e. the one used by AVAssetReaderTrackOutput, which (I think) somehow merges the stereo tracks. The documentation is sparse, and in particular it’s not documented whether the lower or higher sample rate is used; in this case, it seems like the higher one is used, but audioStreamBasicDescription for some reason returns the lower one.
Does anybody know why this is the case or how I should extract the sample rate of the produced PCM audio data? Should I always take the higher one?
I created FB19620455.
let openPanel = NSOpenPanel()
openPanel.allowedContentTypes = [.audiovisualContent]
openPanel.runModal()
let url = openPanel.urls[0]
let asset = AVURLAsset(url: url)
let assetTrack = asset.tracks(withMediaType: .audio)[0]
let assetReader = try! AVAssetReader(asset: asset)
let readerOutput = AVAssetReaderTrackOutput(track: assetTrack, outputSettings: [AVFormatIDKey: Int(kAudioFormatLinearPCM), AVLinearPCMBitDepthKey: 16, AVLinearPCMIsBigEndianKey: false, AVLinearPCMIsFloatKey: false, AVLinearPCMIsNonInterleaved: false])
readerOutput.alwaysCopiesSampleData = false
assetReader.add(readerOutput)
let formatDescriptions = assetTrack.formatDescriptions as! [CMFormatDescription]
let sampleRate = formatDescriptions[0].audioStreamBasicDescription!.mSampleRate
//let sampleRate = formatDescriptions[0].audioFormatList.map({ $0.mASBD.mSampleRate }).max()!
print(formatDescriptions[0].audioStreamBasicDescription!.mSampleRate)
print(formatDescriptions[0].audioFormatList.map({ $0.mASBD.mSampleRate }))
if !assetReader.startReading() {
preconditionFailure()
}
var length = 0
while assetReader.status == .reading {
guard let sampleBuffer = readerOutput.copyNextSampleBuffer(), let blockBuffer = sampleBuffer.dataBuffer else {
break
}
length += blockBuffer.dataLength
}
print(Double(length) / (sampleRate * asset.duration.seconds))
Is there any feasible way to get a Core Audio device's system effect status (Voice Isolation, Wide Spectrum)?
AVCaptureDevice provides convenience properties for system effects for video devices. I need to get this status for Core Audio input devices.
I'm working on a project to support spatial audio editing, using this sample project as a reference: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cinematic/editing-spatial-audio-with-an-audio-mix
This sample works well on an unedited capture, but does not work for a capture that has already been edited.
The failure is occurring at "let audioInfo = try await CNAssetSpatialAudioInfo(asset: myAsset)", which is throwing "no eligible audio tracks in asset".
I also find that for already edited captures, if i use CNAssetSpatialAudioInfo.assetContainsSpatialAudio, it returns false.
What i mean by "already edited" is that if I take a spatial capture with my iPhone 16, and then edit that capture in the Photos app using the Cinematic effect, and then save the edited output (e.g. edited_capture.mov), I can't import that edited_capture.mov into my project as a spatial audio asset.
Is this intentional behavior or a bug?
If it's intentional, can you describe why?
Topic:
Media Technologies
SubTopic:
Audio
I'm using an AVAudioConverter object to decode an OPUS stream for VoIP. The decoding itself works well, however, whenever the stream stalls (no more audio packet is available to decode because of network instability) this can be heard in crackling / abrupt stop in decoded audio. OPUS can mitigate this by indicating packet loss by passing a null pointer in the C-library to
int opus_decode_float (OpusDecoder * st, const unsigned char * data, opus_int32 len, float * pcm, int frame_size, int decode_fec), see https://opus-codec.org/docs/opus_api-1.2/group__opus__decoder.html#ga9c554b8c0214e24733a299fe53bb3bd2.
However, with AVAudioConverter using Swift I'm constructing an AVAudioCompressedBuffer like so:
let compressedBuffer = AVAudioCompressedBuffer(
format: VoiceEncoder.Constants.networkFormat,
packetCapacity: 1,
maximumPacketSize: data.count
)
compressedBuffer.byteLength = UInt32(data.count)
compressedBuffer.packetCount = 1
compressedBuffer.packetDescriptions!
.pointee.mDataByteSize = UInt32(data.count)
data.copyBytes(
to: compressedBuffer.data
.assumingMemoryBound(to: UInt8.self),
count: data.count
)
where data: Data contains the raw OPUS frame to be decoded.
How can I specify data loss in this context and cause the AVAudioConverter to output PCM data whenever no more input data is available?
More context:
I'm specifying the audio format like this:
static let frameSize: UInt32 = 960
static let sampleRate: Float64 = 48000.0
static var networkFormatStreamDescription =
AudioStreamBasicDescription(
mSampleRate: sampleRate,
mFormatID: kAudioFormatOpus,
mFormatFlags: 0,
mBytesPerPacket: 0,
mFramesPerPacket: frameSize,
mBytesPerFrame: 0,
mChannelsPerFrame: 1,
mBitsPerChannel: 0,
mReserved: 0
)
static let networkFormat =
AVAudioFormat(
streamDescription:
&networkFormatStreamDescription
)!
I've tried 1) setting byteLength and packetCount to zero and 2) returning nil but setting .haveData in the AVAudioConverterInputBlock I'm using with no success.
Hello,
Starting in iOS 17, our application started having some issue publishing to our video session. More specifically the video capture seems to be broken in some, but not all sessions. What's troubling is that we're seeing that it fails consistently every 4 sessions.
It also fails silently, without reporting any problems to the app. We only notice that there are no frames being rendered or sent to the remote devices.
Here's what shows-up in the console:
<<<< FigCaptureSourceRemote >>>> Fig assert: "! storage->connectionDied" at bail (FigCaptureSourceRemote.m:235) - (err=0)
<<<< FigCaptureSourceRemote >>>> Fig assert: "err == 0 " at bail (FigCaptureSourceRemote.m:253) - (err=-16453)
Anyone seeing this? Any idea what could be the cause? Our sessions work perfectly on iOS16 and below.
Thanks
I've been generating new Audio Unit Extension apps with Xcode 16 (and newer), and although they generally work initially, it is easy (although I'm not sure how to do it reliably) to cause the app to no longer be able to instantiate the audiounit. Generally the call to AVAudioUnit.findComponent fails and SimplePlayEngine hits the fatalError("Failed to find component with type...")
In the most recent project, merely adding files to the extension (without making any use of them) caused it to go off the rails.
If I "Archive" the app+plugin, there is no audio unit extension in the bundle.
If I switch to the audiounit extension and build it it's fine. If I look at the build folder in Library/Developer/Xcode/project_folder the extension_name.appex is there.
Any ideas? If I can coax an unmodified audio unit extension project to exhibit this behavior I'll attach it here. Right now what I have has code I don't want to share.
Hi 👋! We have a SpriteKit-based app where we play AVAudio sounds in three different ways:
Effects (incl. UI sounds) with AVAudioPlayer.
Long looping tracks with AVAudioPlayer.
Short animation effects on the timeline of SpriteKit's SKScene files (effectively SKAudioNode nodes).
We've found that when you exit the app or otherwise interrupt audio plays, future audio plays often fail. For example, there's a WebKit-based video trailer inside the app, and if you play it, our looping background music track (2.) will stop playing, and won't resume as you close the trailer (return from WebKit). This is probably due to us not manually restarting the track (so may well be easily fixed). Periodically played AVAudioPlayer audio (1.) are not affected.
However, the more concerning thing is that the audio tracks on SKScene file timelines (3.) will no longer play. My hypothesis is that AVAudioEngine gets interrupted, and needs to be restarted for those AVAudioNode elements to regain functionality. Thing is, we don't deal with AVAudioEngine at all currently in the app, meaning it is never initiated to begin with.
Obviously things return to normal when you remove the app from short-term memory and restart it. However, it seems many of our users aren't doing this, and often report audio failing presumably due to some interruption in the past without the app ever being cleared from memory.
Any idea why timeline-run SKAudioNodes would fail like this? Should the app react to app backgrounding/foregrounding regarding audio?
Any help would be very much appreciated ✌️!