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Do people not care about playing audio from multiple sources?

symphony

symphony

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 25, 2016
2,232
2,641
Does no one want or need the ability to play from multiple audio sources?

For example, you are listening to music, and you want to quickly watch a video you took in Photos (with audio) or you view a video meme on Reddit, the audio for the music will pause so the other content can be heard.

Surely this is annoying if you just want to quickly view another content without interrupting your music. It’s not like other videos are playing music, it’s just voices and noise.

Or what if you need to sync two videos together? Like a movie and a video commentary?

Another annoying feat, is watching a movie in picture-in-picture, if you just wanna check out a short clip from a different app, it closes your PiP window!

Not only that, but it’s very annoying to rely on developers to fix their buggy apps. Sometimes when I listen to music while scrolling thru Reddit or Twitter, my music will sometimes pause because there’s a video bug in Reddit or Twitter pausing it. Even Apple’s own Apple Music app can pause my current audio playback like Podcasts because playlists’ have animated artwork and it happened to me today even tho they don’t have any sound.

PLEASE GET RID OF THIS LIMITATION
 
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For me it’s if I’m listening to tunes and surfing the web and when I go on sites which have auto playing embedded video and it interrupts my music, that really grinds my gears. CNET is one of the original offenders for this but loads of websites do it now.

Apple should implement what they do on the desktop and have the browser auto mute, but the problem comes because there is only one set of unified media controls and when the video takes over the media controls switch to controlling the embedded video and that’s why the music pauses.
 
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Plus, I don’t think it’s implemented. If they did, Apple would do what they did on Mac and show all active audio sources in the Now Playing in the menu bar or Control Center
 
Apple_Robert said:
I don't really have a desire to listen to two (or more) different audio sources at the same time.
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Most of the time I do too. But there are definitely moments where the auto pausing is absolutely annoying.

And sometimes I just wanna check out media without it pausing my music or podcasts.

can’t enjoy listening to music while quickly doing my dailies in games, can’t view video memes while listening to music, can’t edit visuals only on LumaFusion while listening to music.

Not only do I dislike not having simultaneous playback, but I hate how audio sources are tied to open apps. YouTube pauses when you leave Safari, YouTube pauses when you go to Notification Center. Just let it play.
 
Apple_Robert said:
I don't really have a desire to listen to two (or more) different audio sources at the same time.
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Tbf, I never really desired to have different audio sources at the same time... until I went over to Android.

It's one of those features you really won't appreciate until you actually use it. And as much as I would like it on iDevices, the ease of use that iDevices are known for... I don't know it's for everyone. I can imagine it causing issues to those accustomed for music to stop when suddenly deciding to watch a video.

Apple would need to revamp the volume slider if they decide to implement such a feature.

AirTagStalker said:
Not only do I dislike not having simultaneous playback, but I hate how audio sources are tied to open apps. YouTube pauses when you leave Safari, YouTube pauses when you go to Notification Center. Just let it play.
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PiP? Or I don't know if you have YT Premium... it's a good deal, just saying.

But I do understand your reasoning for it. I have YouTube TV and I can watch playoff ball while listening to music on Android.
 
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Ludatyk said:
Tbf, I never really desired to have different audio sources at the same time... until I went over to Android.

It's one of those features you really won't appreciate until you actually use it. And as much as I would like it on iDevices, the ease of use that iDevices are known for... I don't know it's for everyone. I can imagine it causing issues to those accustomed for music to stop when suddenly deciding to watch a video.

Apple would need to revamp the volume slider if they decide to implement such a feature.


PiP? Or I don't know if you have YT Premium... it's a good deal, just saying.

But I do understand your reasoning for it. I have YouTube TV and I can watch playoff ball while listening to music on Android.
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I don't know what I am missing until I have what I didn't know I wanted. That has happened more than once with me and new Apple features. lol I don't see myself going to the dark side so, I guess I will stay ignorantly blissful in this area. :D
 
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Ludatyk said:
Tbf, I never really desired to have different audio sources at the same time... until I went over to Android.

It's one of those features you really won't appreciate until you actually use it. And as much as I would like it on iDevices, the ease of use that iDevices are known for... I don't know it's for everyone. I can imagine it causing issues to those accustomed for music to stop when suddenly deciding to watch a video.

Apple would need to revamp the volume slider if they decide to implement such a feature.


PiP? Or I don't know if you have YT Premium... it's a good deal, just saying.

But I do understand your reasoning for it. I have YouTube TV and I can watch playoff ball while listening to music on Android.
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Using a Mac or a PC is enough to make me want to have multiple audio sources on my iPhone or iPad haha

Just give it a toggle in accessibility settings then, like they do for PiP.

I have YouTube premium but it doesn’t support PiP. I also prefer using Safari YouTube on my iPad which still pauses the audio when I have premium
 
Apple_Robert said:
I don't know what I am missing until I have what I didn't know I wanted. That has happened more than once with me and new Apple features. lol I don't see myself going to the dark side so, I guess I will stay ignorantly blissful in this area. :D
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You’ve never had to watch a video just to see what is playing without wanting to interrupting your current playback (ex. Music/podcasts/YouTube)?
 
Apple_Robert said:
If I have music playing and then want to see a video, I either stop the music to watch the video, or I play the video at a later time.
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So what if it’s a video that has irrelevant audio?

Examples: Videos with little to no sound; videos of a someone recording a screen (like a security footage); people just talking, 3-30 second video memes; what if you want to quickly check out what’s in the video and you go to scrub thru it?; what if you wanna find a specific time stamp for a video to share?; do any of these really warrant having to pause or interrupt your current audio source? Cuz most a lot of the times it’s unnecessary, especially if it’s a quick video
 
AirTagStalker said:
Using a Mac or a PC is enough to make me want to have multiple audio sources on my iPhone or iPad haha
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I understand that, I'm just looking at the vast majority of people...who's grown accustomed to having video stop when music is playing or vice versa.

Just give it a toggle in accessibility settings then, like they do for PiP.
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I think it's going to be much more complex than that... as far as I know, I had to install it on my Galaxy phone. Not sure how it is on other Android device... but its not something that's baked into Android. And I've never known any iOS/iPadOS system feature that had to be installed in order for it to be used.

I have YouTube premium but it doesn’t support PiP. I also prefer using Safari YouTube on my iPad which still pauses the audio when I have premium
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I was just referring to you using YT in Safari and you go to another app. Not necessarily another audio app... but just exiting YT in general.
 
Ludatyk said:
I understand that, I'm just looking at the vast majority of people...who's grown accustomed to having video stop when music is playing or vice versa.


I think it's going to be much more complex than that... as far as I know, I had to install it on my Galaxy phone. Not sure how it is on other Android device... but its not something that's baked into Android. And I've never known any iOS/iPadOS system feature that had to be installed in order for it to be used.


I was just referring to you using YT in Safari and you go to another app. Not necessarily another audio app... but just exiting YT in general.
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Apple has introduced far more complex features than basic audio playback for all audio sources.

Yes, YouTube Safari still pauses when I go to another app, Home Screen, and Notification Center. That’s what I was referring to.

It’s even annoying when I use Siri in YouTube Safari because after Siri responds the audio doesn’t resume and YouTube’s video downgrades to 360p.
 
AirTagStalker said:
So what if it’s a video that has irrelevant audio?

Examples: Videos with little to no sound; videos of a someone recording a screen (like a security footage); people just talking, 3-30 second video memes; what if you want to quickly check out what’s in the video and you go to scrub thru it?; what if you wanna find a specific time stamp for a video to share?; do any of these really warrant having to pause or interrupt your current audio source? Cuz most a lot of the times it’s unnecessary, especially if it’s a quick video
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If sound isn't needed in the video, I may listen to external music at the same time. It would depend on the subject mater of the video.
 
AirTagStalker said:
Apple has introduced far more complex features than basic audio playback for all audio sources.
Click to expand...
I'm not trying to declare Apple is incapable of creating such a feature... but the feature you are requesting isn't as simple as a switch in settings. I think alot more thought will have to go into implementing it.

Apple_Robert said:
If sound isn't needed in the video, I may listen to external music at the same time. It would depend on the subject mater of the video.
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Exactly! Most people have two devices.. desktop/laptop and smartphone, so in that context.. its not a crucial feature to have.
 
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Ludatyk said:
I'm not trying to declare Apple is incapable of creating such a feature... but the feature you are requesting isn't as simple as a switch in settings. I think alot more thought will have to go into implementing it.


Exactly! Most people have two devices.. desktop/laptop and smartphone, so in that context.. its not a crucial feature to have.
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I think you continue to misinterpret me. Because I never said it was difficult for Apple to implement it, it was in response to ease of use.

And you’re making it more difficult than it needs to be. Multiple audio sources already work on iOS and iPad, Apple just continues to limit it. They can implement it just like macOS in Control Center.

and it isn’t just about being able to play two audio sources at once. It’s the problem of your main audio source being interrupted.

I don’t want my music to stop just cuz I played a 5 second meme or an app bugged out and causes my music to stop.
 
For me it very much depends, and for the life of me, I can’t remember if iOS 14 is the same. I suspect it probably is.

However, if I’m playing Apple Music, Qobuz/whatever and (for example) I visit the desktop version of YouTube, and watch a video with the sound muted in the YouTube player, music from the app is uninterrupted, even with the video in full screen.

But that’s the kind of behaviour I’d expect, and I’m sure iOS 14 would be the same, is it? I’m going to have to check when I’m at my desk, instead of sitting in the sun, smoking a £@!?$ and faffing on the internet, avoiding work :D
 
Not really. This was actually one of the things that continues to annoy me about Android and one of my biggest complaints every time I switch.

I've never really had the desire to play from multiple audio sources at once - I find it annoying at best and extremely distracting when I'm trying to focus on work.
 
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God, so annoying when switching between slideover apps via keyboard shortcuts or just viewing Notification Center and control Center on my game and YouTube Safari… it keeps pausing. Apple just let all audio sources play regardless. Smh
 
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