All Devices Airplay 2 Question?

[BuddyRich]

Is it possible to Airplay one thing to an Airplay 2 speaker (say a Song form Apple Music) and listen to something else locally on the phone (say a Podcast from the Podcast app)?

When I try this, I can airplay my apple music song to my Sonos speaker, but when I start a Podcast, it "takes over" the now playing card, and replaces what is airplaying to the speaker. I can't find an option to select different output targets to different apps.

I *thought* this was a feature of Airplay 2 but it doesn't seem to work, unless my target is my ATV4k (in which case its my apple tv is playing the music, but I have to use its card to do this, my sonos speakers don't have this card.

The only app where this sort of works is ironically enough, youtube.

I can airplay music, and watch a video on youtube on the phone, but the youtube audio doesn't take over now playing and get pushed via airplay. Only issue is I can't change volume of the video without changing the volume of the airplay 2 speaker.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I think this has far less to do with the capabilities of Airplay 2 than it has to do with the designed multitasking behavior of various devices.

On iPhone, streaming media generally pauses when you switch out to another app - if you can't give a video your attention, should it keep playing and consuming precious battery? A notable exception in iPhone is that the Music app will keep playing music in the background (listening to tunes while you browse the web). However, as soon as there's audio that takes precedence (a phone call, audio/video on a web page, etc.) the Music app will pause.

Similarly, on all platforms only the active Safari tab refreshes content (my iPhone would die in a minute if all my Safari tabs were constantly refreshing). If you're not actively viewing the web page, why should its content keep refreshing?

I haven't tested Airplay behavior on iPad, but it seems likely that if you're running Picture in Picture or split screen multitasking, the outbound (AirPlay) media will continue to run.

Essentially, you're hoping to use iPhone as a media server - set a movie playing and then do other things. In the end, it all comes down to whether the OS is designed to support that capability. On the whole, iOS devices are intended to be personal devices rather than servers.

 

[SkiingCory]

You cannot do this on an iOS device as you can only have a single audio stream active. You can do this on a Mac. A tool like Sound Source can give you more control on the Mac.

For Music if you have an Apple TV, you can do the solution I figured out.

• On your iOS device go to Control Center and tap the AirPlay icon. This will give you a list of AirPlay 2 Devices.
• Tap the Apple TV you want to control, then tap the text of what is playing. This will open Apple Music App but it is directly controlling the ATV.
• Choice your music, pick the AirPlay 2 targets and play. Control the music from your phone but be free to use other local iOS audio.
• If you play something else, ie Podcast, make sure you go back to iPhone in the Airplay menu.

 

[cynics]

Yep. Add Apple Music to the Sonos Controller app and have the speaker be the actual source of the audio. Then play your podcast on your iPhone as normal.

I dont have an AirPlay 2 compatible Sonos speaker however all of my AirPlay 2 devices are shown like this.

If I touch one of the devices like AppleTV it will pull it to the top. If I find an song and play it like that I'm playing it FROM that device as the source. Then I could go back to iPhone and play something different. Its important to go back to the iPhone or it will change to the new source.

Edit: Found this on Apple.com https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205629