Hello, I'm trying to determine the best/recommended AVAudioSession configuration (i.e category, mode, and options) for the following use-case. Essentially, I'd like to switch between periods of playing an audio file and then recognizing speech. The audio file is typically speech and I don't intend for playback and speech recognition to occur simultaneously. I'd like for the user to sill be able to interact with Siri and I'd like for it to work with CarPlay where navigation prompts can occur. I would assume the category to use is 'playAndRecord', but I'm not sure if it's better to just set that once for the entire lifecycle, or set to 'playback' for audio file playback and then switch to 'playAndRecord' for speech recognition . I'm also not sure on the best 'mode' and 'options' to set. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

I'm working on adding Spatial Audio support to a game on the Mac. I'm looking at the SpatialAudioRenderer sample but having some issues. It's unclear to me when a device is compatible with Spatial Audio and when I should attempt to render Spatial Audio. There is no property that I can find on the Mac that advertises Spatial Audio compatibility on a device. The sample crashes when the output device is a USB device. This includes the Apple Studio Display. The Apple Studio Display is supposed to be capable of rendering Spatial Audio. The device doesn't work with the sample - do I still need to render down the 7.1.4 source on this device? The sample always renders down to Stereo, but the Apple Studio Display is not a Stereo device. I'm a bit confused by the sample and when/how I should configure the mixing unit.

I need to apply headphone-specific scenario only when headphones are the sole active playback device in my iOS audio app. Problem that there is no absolute way to definitively understand that headphones are the sole active playback device AVAudioSession.currentRoute.outputs portTypes don't guarantee headphones: let session = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() let outputs = session.currentRoute.outputs let headphonesOnly = outputs.count == 1 && (outputs.first?.portType == .headphones || outputs.first?.portType == .bluetoothA2DP || outputs.first?.portType == .bluetoothHFP || outputs.first?.portType == .bluetoothLE) The issue in code above that listed bluetooth profiles (A2DP, HFP, LE) can be used by any audio device, not only headphones Is there any public API on iOS that can: Distinguish Bluetooth headphones vs Bluetooth speakers when both use A2DP/LE? Expose the user’s “Device Type” classification (headphones / speaker / car stereo, etc.) that is shown in Settings → Bluetooth → Device Type? Provide a more reliable way to know “this route is definitely headphones” for A2DP devices, beyond portType and portName string heuristics?

Hey, Quick question. I noticed that Adobe's new app, Project Indigo, allows you to open the app using the Camera Control button. However, when your device is locked it just shows this screen: Would this normally be approved by the Appstore approval process? I ask because I would like to do something similar with my camera app. I know that this is not the best user experience, but my apps UI is not built in Swift and I don't have the resources to build the UI again. At least this way the user experience would be improved from what it is now, where users cannot even launch the app. I get many requests per week about this feature and would love to improve the UX for my users, even if it's not the best possible. Thanks, Alex

I am working on an app which plays audio - https://youtu.be/VbAfUk_eYl0?si=nJg5ayy2faWE78-g - and one of the features is, on restart, if you had paused playback of a file at the time the app was previously shut down (or were playing one at the time of shutdown), the paused state and position in the file is restored exactly as it was, on restart. The functionality works. However, it seems impossible to get the "now playing" information in iOS into the right state to reflect that via the MediaPlayer API. On restart, handlers are attached to the play/pause/togglePlayPause actions on MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared(), and the map of media info is updated on MPNowPlayingInfoCenter.default().nowPlayingInfo. What happens is that iOS's media view shows the audio as playing and offers a pause button - even though the play action is enabled and the pause action is disabled. Once playback has been initiated (my workaround is to have the pause action toggle the play state, since otherwise you wouldn't be able to initiate playback from controls in a car without initiating it once from a device first). I've created a simplified white-noise-player demo to illustrate the problem - simply build and deploy it, and then start the app, lock your device and look at the playback controls on the lock screen. It will show a pause button - same behavior I've described. https://github.com/timboudreau/ios-play-pause-demo I've tried a few things to narrow down the source of the issue - for example, thinking that not MPNowPlayingInfoPropertyPlaybackProgress and MPMediaItemPropertyPlaybackDuration might be the culprit (since the system interpolates elapsed time and it's recommended to update those properties infrequently) on startup might do the trick, but the result is the same, just without a duration or progress shown. What governs this behavior, and is there some way to explicitly tell the media player API your current state is paused?

I’m building a teleprompter-style app that relies on Picture in Picture. PiP starts correctly on device. Everything works — until another app (e.g. TikTok / Instagram) starts active video recording. When camera capture begins in the foreground app, iOS terminates my PiP session. Some teleprompter apps appear to keep PiP active while recording in other apps, so I’m trying to understand the recommended architectural pattern for this scenario. Is there a documented approach or best practice to keep PiP stable during third-party camera capture? Looking specifically for guidance on the correct AVKit / AVAudioSession configuration for this use case.

Is there a way to destroy MIDIUMPMutableEndpoint again? In my app, the user has a setting to enable and disable MIDI 2.0. If MIDI 2.0 should not be supported (or if iOS version < 18), it creates a virtual destination and a virtual source. And if MIDI 2.0 should be enabled, it instead creates a MIDIUMPMutableEndpoint, which itself creates the virtual destination and source automatically. So here is my problem: I didn't find any way to destroy the MIDIUMPMutableEndpoint again. There is a method to disable it (setEnabled:NO), but that doesn't destroy or hide the virtual destination and source. So when the user turns MIDI 2.0 support off, I will have two virtual destinations and sources, and cannot get rid of the 2.0 ones. What is the correct way to get rid of the MIDIUMPMutableEndpoint once it is created?

I'm using Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode in my native iOS application, which is similar to Google Meet, using the VideoSDK.live Native iOS SDK. The SDK has built-in support for PiP and it's working fine for the most part. However, I'm running into a problem: When the app enters PiP mode, the local camera (self-video) of the participant freezes or stops. I want to fix this and achieve the same smooth behavior seen in apps like Google Meet and WhatsApp, where the local camera keeps working even in PiP mode. I've been trying to find documentation or examples on how to achieve this but haven't had much luck. I came across a few mentions that using the camera in the background may require special entitlements from Apple (like in the entitlements file). Most of the official documentation says background camera access is restricted due to Apple’s privacy policies. So my questions are: Has anyone here successfully implemented background camera access in PiP mode on iOS? If yes, what permissions or entitlements are required? How do apps like WhatsApp and Google Meet achieve this functionality on iPhones? Any help, advice, or pointers would be really appreciated!

In iOS 18, CarPlay shows an error: “There was a problem loading this content” after playback starts. Audio works fine, but the Now Playing screen doesn’t load. I’m using MPPlayableContentManager. This worked fine in iOS 17. Anyone else seeing this error in iOS 18?

I'm developing a video capture app using AVFoundation, designed specifically for use on a boat pylon to record slalom water skiing. This setup involves considerable vibration. As you may know, the OIS that Apple began adding to lenses since the iPhone 7 is actually very problematic in high vibration circumstances, ironically creating very shaky video, whereas lenses without OIS produce perfectly stable video. Because of this, up until iPhone 14, the solution for my app was simply to use the Selfie lens, which did not have OIS. Starting with iPhone 14 through iPhone 16 (non-Pro models), technical specs suggest the selfie lens still does not include OIS. However, I’m still seeing the same kind of shaky video behavior I see on OIS-equipped lenses. The one hardware change I see in this camera module is the addition of PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), so that is my best guess as to what is causing the unstable video. 1- Does that make any sense - that in high vibration settings, PDAF could create unstable video in the same way that OIS does? Or could it be something else that was changed between the iPhone 13 and 14 Selfie lens? Thinking that the issue was PDAF, I figured that if I enabled my app to set a Manual Focus level, that ought to circumvent PDAF (expecting that if a lens is manually focusing, it can’t also be autofocusing via PDAF). However, even with manual focus locked via AVCaptureDevice in my app, on the Selfie lens of an iPhone 16, the video still comes out very shaky, basically unusable. I also tested with the built-in Apple Camera app (using the press-and-hold to lock focus and exposure) and another 3rd party camera app to lock focus, all with the same results, so it's not that my app just isn't correctly doing manual focus. So I'm stuck with these questions: 2- Does the selfie camera on iPhones 14–16 use PDAF even when focus is set to locked/manual mode? 3- Is there any way in AVFoundation to disable or suppress PDAF during video recording (e.g., a flag, device format setting, or private API)? 4- Is PDAF behavior or suppression documented or controllable via AVCaptureDevice or any related class? 5- If no control of PDAF is available, are there any best practices for stabilizing or smoothing this effect programmatically? Note that I also have set my app to use the most aggressive form of stabilization available, so it defaults to .cinematicExtendedEnhanced, if that’s not available, then .cinematicExtended, etc. On the 16 Selfie lens, it is using .cinematicExtended. As an additional question: 6- Would those be the most appropriate stabilization settings for a high vibration environment, and if not, what would be best?

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?

Hi, I'm developing a SwiftUI app using RealityKit and ARKit for an AR measuring feature. I’ve noticed that after navigating away from my AR view and performing extensive cleanup (including removing all anchors/entities, pausing the ARSession, and nil-ing out all references), memory usage remains elevated and sometimes grows with repeated AR sessions. Each time I enter and exit the AR view, memory increases The memory does not return to the baseline after cleanup, even though all custom objects are deallocated. Are there best practices beyond what I’ve described to ensure all ARKit/RealityKit resources are released after an AR session?

My audio app shows a control bar at the bottom of the window. The controls show nicely, but there is a black "slab" appearing behind the inline controls, the same size as the playerView. Setting the player view background color does nothing: playerView.wantsLayer = true playerView.layer?.backgroundColor = NSColor.clear.cgColor How can I clear the background? If I use .floating controlsStyle, I don't get the background "slab".

Hello! In iOS1.7.5, photogrammetry sessions cannot be performed on iPhones without LiDAR, but I don't think there is much difference in GPU performance between those with and without LiDAR. For example, the chips installed in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 are the same A16 Bionic, and I think the GPU performance is also the same. Despite this, photogrammetry can be performed on the iPhone 14 Pro but not on the iPhone 15. Why is this? In fact, we have confirmed that if you transfer images taken with an iPhone 16 without LiDAR to an iPhone 16 Pro and run a photogrammetry session using those images, a 3D model can be generated. Also, will photogrammetry be able to be performed on high-performance iPhones without LiDAR in the future?

My app Balletrax is a music player for people to use while they teach ballet. Used to be you could silence notifications during use, but now the customer seems to have to know how to use Focus mode, remember to turn it on and off, and have to check the notifications one does and doesn't want to use. Is there no way to silence all notifications when the app is in use?

When I use IOKit/usb/IOUSBLib to toggle build-in camera, I got an ERROR:ret IOReturn -536870210 How can I resolve it? Can I use IOUSBLib to disable or hide build-in camera? My environment: Model Name: MacBook Pro ProductVersion: 15.5 Model Identifier: MacBookPro15,2 Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i5 Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz Number of Processors: 1 // 禁用/启用USB设备 bool toggleUSBDevice(uint16_t vendorID, uint16_t productID, bool enable) { std::cout << (enable ? "Enabling" : "Disabling") << " USB device with VID: 0x" << std::hex << vendorID << ", PID: 0x" << productID << std::endl; // 创建匹配字典查找指定VID/PID的USB设备 CFMutableDictionaryRef matchingDict = IOServiceMatching(kIOUSBDeviceClassName); if (!matchingDict) { std::cerr << "Failed to create USB device matching dictionary." << std::endl; return false; } // 设置VID/PID匹配条件 CFNumberRef vendorIDRef = CFNumberCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, kCFNumberSInt16Type, &vendorID); CFNumberRef productIDRef = CFNumberCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, kCFNumberSInt16Type, &productID); CFDictionarySetValue(matchingDict, CFSTR(kUSBVendorID), vendorIDRef); CFDictionarySetValue(matchingDict, CFSTR(kUSBProductID), productIDRef); CFRelease(vendorIDRef); CFRelease(productIDRef); // 获取匹配的设备迭代器 io_iterator_t deviceIterator; if (IOServiceGetMatchingServices(kIOMainPortDefault, matchingDict, &deviceIterator) != KERN_SUCCESS) { std::cerr << "Failed to get USB device iterator." << std::endl; CFRelease(matchingDict); return false; } io_service_t usbDevice; bool result = false; int deviceCount = 0; // 遍历所有匹配的设备 while ((usbDevice = IOIteratorNext(deviceIterator)) != IO_OBJECT_NULL) { deviceCount++; // 获取设备路径 char path[1024]; if (IORegistryEntryGetPath(usbDevice, kIOServicePlane, path) == KERN_SUCCESS) { std::cout << "Found device at path: " << path << std::endl; } // 打开设备 IOCFPlugInInterface** plugInInterface = NULL; IOUSBDeviceInterface** deviceInterface = NULL; SInt32 score; IOReturn ret = IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService( usbDevice, kIOUSBDeviceUserClientTypeID, kIOCFPlugInInterfaceID, &plugInInterface, &score); if (ret == kIOReturnSuccess && plugInInterface) { ret = (*plugInInterface)->QueryInterface(plugInInterface, CFUUIDGetUUIDBytes(kIOUSBDeviceInterfaceID), (LPVOID*)&deviceInterface); (*plugInInterface)->Release(plugInInterface); } if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) { std::cerr << "Failed to open USB device interface. Error:" << ret << std::endl; IOObjectRelease(usbDevice); continue; } // 禁用/启用设备 if (enable) { // 启用设备 - 重新配置设备 ret = (*deviceInterface)->USBDeviceReEnumerate(deviceInterface, 0); if (ret == kIOReturnSuccess) { std::cout << "Device enabled successfully." << std::endl; result = true; } else { std::cerr << "Failed to enable device. Error: " << ret << std::endl; } } else { // 禁用设备 - 断开设备连接 ret = (*deviceInterface)->USBDeviceClose(deviceInterface); if (ret == kIOReturnSuccess) { std::cout << "Device disabled successfully." << std::endl; result = true; } else { std::cerr << "Failed to disable device. Error: " << ret << std::endl; } } // 关闭设备接口 (*deviceInterface)->Release(deviceInterface); IOObjectRelease(usbDevice); } IOObjectRelease(deviceIterator); if (deviceCount == 0) { std::cerr << "No device found with specified VID/PID." << std::endl; return false; } return result; }

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?

Product Xcode Version 26.3 (26C5131e) Platform macOS / iOS Simulator / iOS Device Classification Bug / Incorrect UI Behaviour Reproducibility Always (persists across restarts, scheme recreation, DerivedData clearing) Date Encountered February 20, 2026 Hardware Mac mini (M2) running macOS Test Device iPhone SE (2nd generation), iOS 26.3 Summary In Xcode 26.3, attempting to run an iOS app on any simulator destination using Cmd+R fails with the error: "A build only device cannot be used to run this target. Please select an available device or choose a simulated device as the destination." This occurs despite the selected destination being a valid iOS Simulator (not a "build only" device). The same project builds successfully using Cmd+B within Xcode and builds, installs, and runs correctly via the command line using xcodebuild, xcrun simctl, and xcrun devicectl. Steps to Reproduce Open a valid iOS project in Xcode 26.3. The project in question has target name "h", product name "DiabetesHbA1cPrediction", bundle identifier "com.diabeteshba1c.DiabetesHbA1cPrediction", with IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET set to 26.0. In the scheme/destination picker toolbar, select any iOS Simulator destination (e.g. iPhone 16, iPhone 17 Pro, or any other available simulator). The destination name appears correctly in the toolbar without any "build only" annotation. Press Cmd+R (Product > Run). Xcode immediately displays the error: "A build only device cannot be used to run this target." Press Cmd+B (Product > Build) instead. The build succeeds with no errors. Expected Behaviour Cmd+R should build and launch the application on the selected simulator, just as it does in previous Xcode versions. The user had been running simulators successfully for the prior week before this issue appeared. Actual Behaviour Xcode refuses to run the app, treating every simulator destination as a "build only device." The error appears instantly upon pressing Cmd+R, before any build activity begins. Cmd+B succeeds normally, confirming the project and scheme configuration are valid. Workarounds Attempted (All Failed) The following troubleshooting steps were performed, none of which resolved the Xcode UI issue: Changed IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET across multiple values (26.2, 18.0, 26.0) in all build settings within project.pbxproj. Deleted and recreated the Xcode scheme (removed .xcscheme files from xcshareddata and xcuserdata, let Xcode auto-create a new scheme). Deleted the entire DerivedData folder (rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData). Selected multiple different simulator destinations (iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro) — all produced the same error. Verified the scheme’s Executable setting (confirmed it was set to the correct .app target). Changed "Show Run Destination" setting between Automatic and Always. Quit and restarted Xcode completely. Confirmed that simulator device names in the destination dropdown appeared normally, without any "build only" suffix. Working Workaround: Command-Line Build and Deploy The project builds, installs, and runs correctly when using command-line tools, confirming the project configuration is valid: Simulator deployment: xcodebuild -scheme h -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' build xcrun simctl boot 7F0DF8DA-E4A3-41B2-A2E4-B1F528753189 xcrun simctl install booted xcrun simctl launch booted com.diabeteshba1c.DiabetesHbA1cPrediction Result: App launched and ran correctly in the simulator. Physical device deployment (iPhone SE 2020, iOS 26.3): xcodebuild -scheme h -destination 'id=00008030-001128DC2E51402E' build xcrun devicectl device install app --device xcrun devicectl device process launch --device com.diabeteshba1c.DiabetesHbA1cPrediction Result: BUILD SUCCEEDED, app installed and launched on the physical device without issue. Key Observations The disconnect between Xcode’s UI-based Run (Cmd+R) failing and the command-line build/deploy succeeding with identical configuration strongly suggests this is an Xcode IDE bug in the run destination resolution logic, not a project configuration issue. Cmd+B succeeds in Xcode itself, meaning the build system correctly recognises the project, scheme, and destination. The failure occurs specifically in the “run” pathway where Xcode evaluates whether the destination supports execution. The simulator dropdown shows destination names without any "build only" label, yet Xcode internally treats them as build-only when the Run action is invoked. This behaviour started occurring in Xcode 26.3. The same project and simulators worked correctly in the preceding week under the same Xcode installation. Environment Xcode version: 26.3 (26C5131e) macOS: Running on Mac mini (M2) iOS SDK: 26.3 Available simulator runtimes: iOS 18.6, iOS 26.2 Physical test device: iPhone SE (2nd generation), iOS 26.3 Project type: SwiftUI iOS app with HealthKit integration Signing: Automatic, with valid provisioning for both simulator and device

I’ve been using Apple Music API for quite a while now and a recent change must have happened which is quite disruptive. On many occasions, artists release singles from an album as part of promoting this album. For recent examples, Harry Styles released “Aperture” (a single) to promote his upcoming album “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally“. Similarly, Bruno Mars released “I Just Might”, a single from the upcoming album “The Romantic”. Previously, those would return at the endpoint ”artists/{artist_id}/albums” with a “- Single” suffix. But it seems a recent change happens where they only appear as playable tracks inside the album. This behavior is also evident in the Apple Music app itself. Those singles no longer appear under “Singles & EPs”. Instead, they would only be visible if the single becomes popular enough to be shown on “Top Songs“. Otherwise one would have to know to tap on the (future) album to discover if there are released singles. Meanwhile Spotify’s API returns those as singles properly, just like Apple Music API used to. This change must be recent but the question is if it’s intentional, and if so, how can the API be used from here on out to “extract” those singles and represent them?

I am trying to create keys for my personal project with MusicKit and other resources, but MusicKit specifically for now. I want to gather my recent music history and log the time in my system to measure with my other life data to do analysis on. I have created an Identifier with an appropriate Description and Bundle ID and have MusicKit checked in AppServices. I have saved and reset cash and waited all day and the keys have still not update and show "There are no identifiers available that can be associated with the key" in this field. Please help!