Detect if audio is playing on macOS

Question

Created Apr ’21

Replies 2

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I would like my app to pause currently playing audio (from other applications) for a certain amount of time, and then resume it.

I'm able to simulate the pause/play media key, but the problem is if the system is not playing audio, and then I simulate the key press, it starts playing audio, which is a big no no.

So I need to detect if there is audio playing.

Some things I have explored:

kAudioDevicePropertyDeviceIsRunningSomewhere will detect whether is a device running that can play audio, but that doesn't mean it actually is playing audio.
AVAudioSession.isOtherAudioPlaying is exactly what I'm looking for, but I'm not working on a Catalyst app, so it's not available to me.
I came across this command, but it is not very accurate. If I pause music, it still returns true for the next 30 seconds or so:

Code Block if [[ "$(pmset -g | grep ' sleep')" == *"coreaudiod"* ]]; then echo audio is playing; else echo no audio playing; fi

Any ideas?

Boost

Answer 1

alexgreene OP

Jun ’21

In light of it being WWDC, any Apple Engineers in here that can help? I don't see anything in new APIs

0

Answer 2

rowlands OP

Mar ’22

I'm also interested in this, I'd like to be able to detect music playing and pause it for a task, then resume it after. Would you mind sharing how you simulated the play/pause media key?

0