Can iOS Apps receive and play burst audio in the background like a walkie talkie?

Question

I'm digging into background audio playing for iOS Apps. I do see a bunch of examples for doing continuous audio playing for background Apps. I wanted to add walkie-talkie like features to my current App, which would need the following:

The App is able to access sockets in the background to establish a constant connexion to receive audio, or something similar.
The App is able to play audio spontaneously without having to be part of a consistent audio stream, even if the App has not been active for some time.
The App audio being played will interrupt any current playing music on the iOS device.

Do iOS devices give programmers the capabilities to program this sort of thing currently?

Don't ask for site recommendations in your questions, please. You've already asked it here; the right time to ask would have been before you asked your question, and the right place would have been on the meta site. — Robert Harvey, Jul 11 '16 at 14:32
As to your question, walkie talkie apps currently exist, so it certainly seems possible. — Robert Harvey, Jul 11 '16 at 14:40

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 05 '16 at 15:59

2

Currently, under iOS, apps in the background can not start playing or recording audio. They can only continue audio that was already started when the app was in the foreground.

answered Aug 05 '16 at 15:59

hotpaw2

7,978

This was possibly done to make audio simpler for the foreground app, as no background app can muck with your foreground app's audio environment underneath it. – hotpaw2 Aug 05 '16 at 16:01
That was much more likely done because an app in the background has a hard time showing a user interface. – gnasher729 Aug 05 '16 at 19:59

Can iOS Apps receive and play burst audio in the background like a walkie talkie?

1 Answers1