Explore the integration of media technologies within your app. Discuss working with audio, video, camera, and other media functionalities.

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iPhone 16 Camera Control and AVCaptureSlider – Is there a way to detect which slider is active?
I am following the Apple sample code and trying to add a manual focus lens position slider: @available(iOS 18.0, *) private func addCameraControls() { if !self.session.controls.isEmpty { for control in self.session.controls { self.session.removeControl(control) } } self.cameraControlFocusSlider = nil //Focus Slider if self.videoDevice!.isLockingFocusWithCustomLensPositionSupported { self.cameraControlFocusSlider = AVCaptureSlider("Focus", symbolName: "dot.square", in: 0.0...1.0) self.cameraControlFocusSlider!.setActionQueue(self.sessionQueue) { focusValue in //Do manual focus } if self.session.canAddControl(self.cameraControlFocusSlider!) { self.session.addControl(self.cameraControlFocusSlider!) } } } So there are these AVCaptureSessionControlsDelegate methods: final func sessionControlsDidBecomeActive(_ session: AVCaptureSession) { print ("sessionControlsDidBecomeActive") } final func sessionControlsWillEnterFullscreenAppearance(_ session: AVCaptureSession) { print ("sessionControlsWillEnterFullscreenAppearance") } final func sessionControlsWillExitFullscreenAppearance(_ session: AVCaptureSession) { print ("sessionControlsWillExitFullscreenAppearance") } final func sessionControlsDidBecomeInactive(_ session: AVCaptureSession) { print ("sessionControlsDidBecomeInactive") } So when self.cameraControlFocusSlider is presented, I have to show the current value of the lense position. Lens position can change from auto focus and also from manual focus by the user using the app UI. Is there a way to see if self.cameraControlFocusSlider is active or being used? Please note that I will have more than one AVCaptureSlider in the final code.
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476
Mar ’25
New API to control front camera orientation like native Camera app on iPhone 17 with iOS 26?
The iPhone 17’s front camera with the new 18MP square sensor and iOS 26’s Center Stage feature can auto-rotate between portrait and landscape like the native iOS Camera app. Is there a Swift or AVFoundation API that allows developers to manually control front camera orientation in the same way the native Camera app does? Or is this auto-rotation strictly handled by the system without public API access?
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328
Oct ’25
Personas and Lighting in a visionOS 26 (or earlier) SharePlay Session
Use case: When SharePlay -ing a fully immersive 3D scene (e.g. a virtual stage), I would like to shine lights on specific Personas, so they show up brighter when someone in the scene is recording the feed (think a camera person in the scene wearing Vision Pro). Note: This spotlight effect only needs to render in the camera person's headset and does NOT need to be journaled or shared. Before I dive into this, my technical question: Can environmental and/or scene lighting affect Persona brightness in a SharePlay? If not, is there a way to programmatically make Personas "brighter" when recording? My screen recordings always seem to turn out darker than what's rendered in environment, and manually adjusting the contrast tends to blow out the details in a Persona's face (especially in visionOS 26).
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116
Jun ’25
CoreMIDI driver - flow control
Hi, when a CoreMIDI driver controls physical HW it is probably quite commune to have to control the amount of MIDI data received from the system. What comes to mind is to just delay returning control of the MIDIDriverInterface::Send() callback to the calling process. While the application trying to send MIDI really stalls until the callback returns it seems only to be a side effect of a generally stalled CoreMIDI server. Between the callbacks the application can send as much MIDI data as it wants to CoreMIDI, it's buffering seems to be endless... However the HW might not be able to play out all the data. It seems there is no way to indicate an overflow/full buffer situation back the application/CoreMIDI. How is this supposed to work? Thanks, any hints or pointers are highly appreciated! Hagen.
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245
Oct ’25
AVAudioMixerNode outputVolume range?
According to the header file the outputVolume properties supported range is 0.0-1.0: /*! @property outputVolume @abstract The mixer's output volume. @discussion This accesses the mixer's output volume (0.0-1.0, inclusive). @property (nonatomic) float outputVolume; However when setting the volume to 2.0 the audio does indeed play louder. Is the header file out of date and if so, what is the supported range for outputVolume? Thanks
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150
Apr ’25
Seeking Expert Clarification on MusicKit Usage and Compliance for a App in Saudi Arabia
Hello Apple Developer Community, We are developing a music management platform for restaurants and cafes in Saudi Arabia. Our app enables businesses to schedule playlists and allows visitors to request songs via barcodes. Music playback is powered by Apple Music, and users must have their own Apple Music subscriptions to access the music. Our service charges a monthly subscription fee for these management features, not for music access itself. Project Overview and MusicKit Role Our app integrates MusicKit to leverage Apple Music’s catalog and playback capabilities. Users log in with their Apple Music accounts, ensuring they have an active subscription for music playback. Our platform’s value lies in its tools—playlist scheduling and song requests—which are built on top of MusicKit’s APIs. We offer these features exclusively in Saudi Arabia. Legal Context in Saudi Arabia In Saudi Arabia, to our understanding, no special licenses are required for playing music in commercial venues like restaurants and cafes. This means our clients can use Apple Music subscriptions for playback without additional performance rights licenses. While this aligns with local laws, we recognize that Apple’s global policies may impose stricter requirements, prompting our need for clarification. Subscription Model and Monetization Concerns We charge a monthly subscription fee for access to our app’s features (e.g., scheduling playlists and managing song requests). This fee is separate from the Apple Music subscription, which users must maintain for playback. However, Apple’s MusicKit terms state: "You agree not to require payment for or indirectly monetize access to the Apple Music service." We’re concerned whether our subscription model might be interpreted as indirectly monetizing Apple Music access, given its reliance on MusicKit for functionality. Scheduling Feature and Synchronization Rights Our app allows businesses to schedule playlists for general time slots (e.g., “play this playlist from 6 PM to 8 PM”). It does not support precise scheduling, such as playing a specific song at an exact moment (e.g., “play this song at 7:30 PM”). Apple’s guidelines mention that “deeper or more complex music integration” may require additional licenses, like synchronization rights. We’re unsure if our general scheduling feature crosses this threshold or remains within MusicKit’s standard usage. Questions for Clarification We’d greatly appreciate expert input on the following: Monetization: Does our subscription fee for management features (scheduling and song requests) violate Apple’s policy against indirectly monetizing Apple Music access? Local Context: Given that Saudi Arabia requires no additional licenses for commercial music playback, does this impact our compliance with Apple’s global terms? Scheduling: Does our playlist scheduling for general time slots (not exact moments) fall within MusicKit’s permitted scope, or does it require further licensing? Thank you in advance for any insights or guidance to ensure our app aligns with Apple’s policies!
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373
Mar ’25
Mute behavior of Volume button on AVPlayerViewController iOS 26
With older iOS versions, when user taps Mute/Volume button on AVPLayerViewController to unmute, the system restores the sound volume of device to the level when user muted before. On iOS 26, when user taps unmute button on screen, the volume starts from 0 (not restore). (but it still restores if user unmutes by pressing physical volume buttons). As I understand, the Volume bar/button on AVPlayerViewController is MPVolumeView, and I can not control it. So this is a feature of the system. But I got complaints that this is a bug. I did not find documents that describe this change of Mute button behavior. I need some bases to explain this situation. Thank you.
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182
Oct ’25
Ducking MusicKit output when playing another sound
I am developing an app that uses MusicKit to play music and then I need to have spoken words played to the user, while ducking the audio coming from MusicKit (application music player) the built in Siri voices are not off sufficient quality so I am using an external service to create an mp3 file and then play this back using AVAudioSession Sample code below the problem I am having is that .duckOthers is not ducking the Application Music Player output Is this a bug or am I doing this wrong? // Configure audio session for system-wide ducking try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .spokenAudio, options: [.duckOthers, .mixWithOthers]) try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true) // Set the ducking level to maximum try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setPreferredIOBufferDuration(0.005) // Create and configure audio player self.audioPlayer = try AVAudioPlayer(data: audioData) self.audioPlayer?.delegate = self self.audioPlayer?.volume = 1.0 // Ensure full volume for speech self.audioPlayer?.prepareToPlay() // Set the audio player's settings for maximum clarity self.audioPlayer?.enableRate = false self.audioPlayer?.pan = 0.0 // Center the audio self.audioPlayer?.play()
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Apr ’25
Does HEVC VideoToolbox support temporal layering of streams with B-frames?
context:Explore low-latency video encoding with VideoToolbox https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2021/10158/ I see above post said HEVC VideoToolbox can support SVC, temporal layering of streams in low-latency mode with all P frames. my question is that Does HEVC VideoToolbox support temporal layering of streams with B-frames ?? thanks
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240
Oct ’25
About the built-in instrument sound of Apple devices
Does anyone know how to pronounce the sound of a specific instrument when you tap a button on the screen on your iPhone or iPad? Now, in the middle of creating a music learning app, I'm thinking of assigning monotones or chords to the button-like frames on the keyboard and fingerboard on the screen. Can it be achieved with SwiftUI chords alone? Once upon a time, MIDI level 1 I remember that there was a pronunciation function of the instrument, but I don't think about implementing the same function in the current OS. Please lend me your wisdom.
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59
May ’25
SBS and OU ViewPacking
SBS ViewPacking add a half a frame to the opposite eye. Meaning if you look all the way right you can see an extra half frame with left eye and vice versa. OU doesn't work at all, the preview just doesn't show a thumbnail and the video doesn't play. Any hints on how to fix this? I submitted a bug report but haven't heard anything.
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319
Oct ’25
Graceful shutdown during background audio playback.
Hello. My team and I think we have an issue where our app is asked to gracefully shutdown with a following SIGTERM. As we’ve learned, this is normally not an issue. However, it seems to also be happening while our app (an audio streamer) is actively playing in the background. From our perspective, starting playback is indicating strong user intent. We understand that there can be extreme circumstances where the background audio needs to be killed, but should it be considered part of normal operation? We hope that’s not the case. All we see in the logs is the graceful shutdown request. We can say with high certainty that it’s happening though, as we know that playback is running within 0.5 seconds of the crash, without any other tracked user interaction. Can you verify if this is intended behavior, and if there’s something we can do about it from our end. From our logs it doesn’t look to be related to either memory usage within the app, or the system as a whole. Best, John
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Jun ’25
AVAudioEngine installTap stops working after phone call interruption on iPhone 16e
Environment Device: iPhone 16e iOS Version: 18.4.1 - 18.7.1 Framework: AVFoundation (AVAudioEngine) Problem Summary On iPhone 16e (iOS 18.4.1-18.7.1), the installTap callback stops being invoked after resuming from a phone call interruption. This issue is specific to phone call interruptions and does not occur on iPhone 14, iPhone SE 3, or earlier devices. Expected Behavior After a phone call interruption ends and audioEngine.start() is called, the previously installed tap should continue receiving audio buffers. Actual Behavior After resuming from phone call interruption: Tap callback is no longer invoked No audio data is captured No errors are thrown Engine appears to be running normally Note: Normal pause/resume (without phone call interruption) works correctly. Steps to Reproduce Start audio recording on iPhone 16e Receive or make a phone call (triggers AVAudioSession interruption) End the phone call Resume recording with audioEngine.start() Result: Tap callback is not invoked Tested devices: iPhone 16e (iOS 18.4.1-18.7.1): Issue reproduces ✗ iPhone 14 (iOS 18.x): Works correctly ✓ iPhone SE 3 (iOS 18.x): Works correctly ✓ Code Initial Setup (Works) let inputNode = audioEngine.inputNode inputNode.installTap(onBus: 0, bufferSize: 4096, format: nil) { buffer, time in self.processAudioBuffer(buffer, at: time) } audioEngine.prepare() try audioEngine.start() Interruption Handling NotificationCenter.default.addObserver( forName: AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification, object: AVAudioSession.sharedInstance(), queue: nil ) { notification in guard let userInfo = notification.userInfo, let typeValue = userInfo[AVAudioSessionInterruptionTypeKey] as? UInt, let type = AVAudioSession.InterruptionType(rawValue: typeValue) else { return } if type == .began { self.audioEngine.pause() } else if type == .ended { try? self.audioSession.setActive(true) try? self.audioEngine.start() // Tap callback doesn't work after this on iPhone 16e } } Workaround Full engine restart is required on iPhone 16e: func resumeAfterInterruption() { audioEngine.stop() inputNode.removeTap(onBus: 0) inputNode.installTap(onBus: 0, bufferSize: 4096, format: nil) { buffer, time in self.processAudioBuffer(buffer, at: time) } audioEngine.prepare() try audioSession.setActive(true) try audioEngine.start() } This works but adds latency and complexity compared to simple resume. Questions Is this expected behavior on iPhone 16e? What is the recommended way to handle phone call interruptions? Why does this only affect iPhone 16e and not iPhone 14 or SE 3? Any guidance would be appreciated!
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195
Oct ’25
[AVFCore] IOS 26.0 EXC_BAD_ACCESS from _customCompositorShouldCancelPendingFrames
Hi, I'm working an a video editing software that lets you composite and export videos. I use a custom compositor to apply my effects etc. In my crash dashboard, I am seeing a report of an EXC_BAD_ACCESS crash from objc_msgSend. Below is the stacktrace. libobjc.A.dylib objc_msgSend libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_sync_invoke_and_complete_recurse libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_sync_f_slow [symbolication failed] libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_client_callout libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_lane_barrier_sync_invoke_and_complete AVFCore -[AVCustomVideoCompositorSession(AVCustomVideoCompositorSession_FigCallbackHandling) _customCompositorShouldCancelPendingFrames] AVFCore _customCompositorShouldCancelPendingFramesCallback MediaToolbox remoteVideoCompositor_HandleVideoCompositorClientMessage CoreMedia __figXPCConnection_CallClientMessageHandlers_block_invoke libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_call_block_and_release libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_client_callout libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_lane_serial_drain libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_lane_invoke libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_root_queue_drain_deferred_wlh libdispatch.dylib _dispatch_workloop_worker_thread libsystem_pthread.dylib _pthread_wqthread libsystem_pthread.dylib start_wqthread What stood out to me is that this is only being reported from IOS 26.0+ devices. A part of the stacktrace failed to be symbolicated [symbolication failed]. I'm 90% confident that this is Apple code, not my app's code. I cannot reproduce this locally. Is this a known issue? What are the possible root-causes, and how can I verify/eliminate them? Thanks,
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227
Oct ’25
Error codes -1102 and 1852797029 when entering the background playing HLS assets
In our logging tools (Firebase) I see a lot of errors reported when users are playing content and the app transitions to the background. A AVPlayerItemFailedToPlayToEndTime notification is fired with an error containing error codes like -1102 and 1852797029 which seem to correspond to NSURLErrorNoPermissionsToReadFile and kCMIOHardwareIllegalOperationError respectively. To me, it looks like these might have something to do with caching logic. The items being played are HLS streams and we make use of AVAssetDownloadTask to make any streamed content offline available. Our setup is similar to the sample provided here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/using-avfoundation-to-play-and-persist-http-live-streams. Whenever an item is selected for playback the app will check if a cached version is available and if so gets the url to the stored file like the "localAssetForStream()" method in the example, or get the asset from a currently running AVAssetDownloadTask for the item, or else, starts a new AVAssetDownloadTask and returns a AVAsset from that task to play. This seems to work fine, and I can't reproduce the issues our users and our logging tools are reporting. Is there some case I am missing where AVAssetDownloadTask and associated AVAssets might become unreadable when the app transitions to the background? Or do these errors indicate a different problem entirely?
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246
Mar ’25
How to record voice, auto-transcribe, translate (auto-detect input language), and play back translated audio on same device in iOS Swift?
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?
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275
Oct ’25