Hi, hoping for guidance on what's a long-running bug for our app. The problem We have a transcription app on iPhone 17 Pro Max running iOS 26.5. Recording flow uses AVAudioEngine.installTap(onBus:) to capture PCM into a JS bridge for streaming to a remote transcription service. A parallel AVAudioRecorder writes the same audio to disk as backup. When the user starts a recording and locks the phone, iOS terminates our process with SIGKILL at approximately 50 seconds of continuous background time, despite: UIBackgroundModes includes audio (verified in shipping IPA's Info.plist) AVAudioSession.setCategory(.playAndRecord, mode: .default) is active AVAudioEngine is running with installTap producing PCM buffers right up to the moment of death UIApplication.backgroundTimeRemaining returns Double.greatestFiniteMagnitude at applicationDidEnterBackground (verified in our event log) No AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification is delivered before the kill. iOS terminates the process cleanly with no warning event to our observer. Evidence Our Swift observer module writes an event log to disk on every system event. On relaunch we ship it to our crash reporter. Excerpt from a recent kill on iOS 26.5 / build 2.1.32: T=0.000s session-start (engineRunning: true) T=57.199s app-will-resign-active (bufferCallbackCount: 22) T=58.913s app-did-enter-background (backgroundTimeRemaining: infinity, bufferCallbackCount: 39) [no further audio events captured] [Swift heartbeat written every 5s for next ~46 seconds] T~105s Process SIGKILLed (heartbeat last-alive: 09:31:01.597Z) Background time before kill: ~46 seconds. engineRunning: true and bufferCallbackCount was still incrementing at the moment the event log stops capturing - the audio engine was alive and feeding buffers when iOS terminated us. What we've tried (35 documented attempts) Hopefully not all relevant but listing for completeness: Various AVAudioSession category/mode/options combinations (Default, Measurement, VoiceChat, .mixWithOthers, .defaultToSpeaker, .allowBluetoothHFP) Parallel AVAudioRecorder writing a .caf file as a "real recording app" signal SFSpeechRecognizer with requiresOnDeviceRecognition = true consuming PCM in-process (50s request rotation) BGContinuedProcessingTask with Progress.completedUnitCount reporting monotonic progress every 5 seconds Live Activity (ActivityKit) with NSSupportsLiveActivitiesFrequentUpdates = true Live Activity update pushes via APNs (confirmed wake widget extension only, not host) Silent device-token APNs background pushes (confirmed iOS ~5/day rate limit) CallKit fake call (CXProvider + CXCallController) - works but creates the green pill UI which our product can't ship WebRTC peer connection with active media stream (via react-native-webrtc loopback) UIBackgroundModes: voip declaration (without CallKit) beginBackgroundTask + engine bounce (Apple's own guidance says don't, our test confirmed it's actively harmful) CLLocationManager background updates All die at ~50s background. None of them survive. What works on the same device Three App Store transcription apps survive indefinite background recording on our exact device + iOS version. We have inspected their IPAs (Mach-O LC_LOAD_DYLIB analysis + embedded entitlement extraction): Otter (com.aisense.otter) - UIBackgroundModes: audio + fetch + processing + remote-notification. Uses OneSignal-driven Live Activity push tokens + NotificationServiceExtension. No CallKit, PushKit, or WebRTC. Granola (com.granola.ios-prod) - has UIBackgroundModes: voip but the voip is for their separate outbound-phone-call feature (TwilioVoice + CallKit, lives in their PhoneCalls.framework). Recording-path uses ONLY AVAudioRecorder + PlayAndRecord + ModeDefault + Live Activity with frequentPushesEnabled. Zero PushKit anywhere in the bundle. Transcribe Speech to Text by DENIVIP (ru.denivip.transcribe) - the smallest API surface: UIBackgroundModes: audio + remote-notification only. AVAudioEngine + .playAndRecord + .default + SFSpeechRecognizer consuming PCM. No CallKit, PushKit, BGTask, Live Activity, WebRTC, or VoIP. Three apps, three different mechanisms, all working. We've implemented bits of all three approaches in our app and still die at 50s. Apple Voice Memos (system app, private entitlements) also survives indefinite recording on the same device. Questions What is the supported API path for indefinite background microphone-only recording on iOS 26.5? Voice Memos and competitor apps clearly accomplish this - what's the missing piece? Why does UIApplication.backgroundTimeRemaining return Double.greatestFiniteMagnitude at applicationDidEnterBackground but the process is terminated ~50 seconds later? Is the meaning of this property changing in iOS 26? What causes the iOS 26 process scheduler to revoke the audio-mode background runtime classification? No AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification is delivered before SIGKILL. Where can we observe the classification change? Does iOS 26 distinguish "audio recording with no audible output" from "audio recording with audible output (e.g. a media playback session)"? If so, what is the supported API to register as a recording-only background-audio app? Does BGContinuedProcessingTask (new in iOS 26) actually extend background CPU time for an app that is also using UIBackgroundModes: audio and an active AVAudioSession? Or is it for finish-what-you-started bursts only (per WWDC 2025 session 227)? Any guidance - even pointers to specific WWDC sessions, sample code, or technotes - would be hugely appreciated. We've spent ~40+ hours on this and want to know what the supported path looks like in iOS 26. Happy to share more event-log data, IPA inspection notes, or build a focused Xcode reproduction if helpful. Thanks!

I'm working on a podcast app and I'm running into a small quirk I'd like to fix. On Apple's Podcast app and on the Spotify app when I say, for example, "Hey Siri, skip" the audio pauses, the app performs the operation, and then immediately resumes playing the audio at the previous volume without waiting for the Siri overlay to dismiss. But my app doesn't do that. When I say "Hey Siri, skip" it pauses the audio, performs the operation, but then audio stays paused until the overlay dismisses or the audio resumes playing at a reduced volume until the overlay dismisses depending on which route I go. What I've tried: Stays paused until overlay dismisses: AVAudioSession.setCategory(.playback, mode: .spokenAudio), setActive(true) Register for AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification On .began interruption capture if audio is currently playing On .ended interruption: if it was playing before, call play() again Plays at reduced volume until the overlay dismisses: Same as above plus: Inside MPRemoteCommandCenter.shared().skipBackwardCommand, I call seek and then: AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(false, options: .notifyOthersOnDeactivation) AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .spokenAudio, policy: .longFormAudio, options: []) AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true) player.play() player.rate = playbackSpeed player.volume = 1.0 AVAudioSession.interruptionNotification finally arrives with .ended + .shouldResume, at which point volume snaps to normal. I tried that with and without setPrefersNoInterruptionsFromSystemAlerts(true) but there was no difference. Seems like .ended only arrives when the Siri overlay dismisses, and not during Siri's active state? While I was trying things XCode warned me that: Ignoring setPlaybackState because application does not contain entitlement com.apple.mediaremote.set-playback-state for platform Which, of course, I can't add b/c it's a private API. Do I need that to do what I want? Or am I missing something else? Thanks!

Environment Device: Apple Vision Pro (real device) OS: visionOS 26.5 Xcode: 26.5 Framework: AVFAudio / AVFoundation Summary On visionOS 26.5, tapping an empty Button consistently emits the following internal warning before the action closure executes: <<<< FigAudioSession(AV) >>>> signalled err=-19224 (<>:612) After this warning is emitted, any subsequent call to configure AVAudioSession silently stops working — audio input and output become non-functional for the lifetime of the session. If the same configuration is performed without a preceding button tap (e.g., inside View.task {}), it succeeds and audio works correctly. Reproduction Due to a dependency on LiveKitWebRTC (livekit/webrtc-xcframework) for WebRTC-based Realtime API audio, we are unable to provide a full self-contained sample project. However, the AVAudioSession configuration code involved is as follows: static func configureAudioSession() { #if !os(macOS) do { let audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() #if os(tvOS) try audioSession.setCategory(.playAndRecord, options: []) #else try audioSession.setCategory(.playAndRecord, options: [.defaultToSpeaker]) #endif try audioSession.setMode(.videoChat) try audioSession.setActive(true, options: .notifyOthersOnDeactivation) } catch { print("Failed to configure AVAudioSession: \(error)") } #endif } Scenario A — Button tap (fails): Button("Start") { configureAudioSession() // FigAudioSession err=-19224 appears; audio stops working } Scenario B — View.task (succeeds): .task { configureAudioSession() // No warning; audio works correctly } The only difference is whether a user gesture (Button tap) precedes the call. Observed Behavior Tapping any Button on visionOS 26.5 causes FigAudioSession(AV) err=-19224 to be signalled at <>:612, even before the action closure runs. After this warning, AVAudioSession configuration appears to have no effect — setActive(true) does not throw, but audio appears to stop functioning. Configuring the session prior to any button interaction (e.g., in View.task {}) works correctly. Expected Behavior A Button tap should not implicitly interfere with the audio session state. AVAudioSession configuration should succeed regardless of the UI event context that triggers it. Questions What does FigAudioSession(AV) err=-19224 mean? Does it correspond to a documented AVAudioSession.ErrorCode? Why does a Button tap trigger a FigAudioSession signal on visionOS? Is the system performing implicit audio session management when detecting user interaction? Is there a recommended pattern for configuring AVAudioSession in response to a user gesture on visionOS? Our current workaround (View.task {}) is not suitable for on-demand audio start triggered by the user. Is err=-19224 causally responsible for the subsequent audio issue? Since setActive(true) does not throw after the warning, it is unclear whether this signal is the direct cause of the apparent audio failure or a symptom of a deeper conflict. Are there UI components or APIs on visionOS that do not trigger this signal, while still being user-interaction driven? Additional Notes Reproducible only on physical Apple Vision Pro hardware; not observed in Simulator. AirPlay mirroring is not in use during testing. No other apps are playing audio in the background at the time of reproduction. We use LiveKitWebRTC (livekit/webrtc-xcframework, revision 94ce1c9) for WebRTC audio. However, the FigAudioSession warning appears independently of the WebRTC layer — it is emitted on Button tap even before configureAudioSession() is called. We have verified that calling configureAudioSession() before performHandshake() (i.e., before WebRTC initializes its audio pipeline) does not resolve the issue when a Button tap precedes the call.

I am using AVAudioSession, AVAudioEngine and SpeechAnalyzer to listen to commands, also when the phone is locked. In the same time, I can receive PushNotifications with pre-defined sound. However, the pre-defined sound is not played when the AVAudioEngine is running and the phone is locked. In the code below, I have made many experiments, all of them are "Receive Push Notification while the phone is locked", and I have the following results: If audioEngine has started - I only see the alert, but no sound. If I comment out audioEngine.start, all works as expected and I hear the apns sound on the speaker. If I change the AVAudioSession category to 'record' I don't receive the push message at all! I wonder if anyone has seen it. Here is my code: private func doStartListening() async { print("SpeechService: doStartListening called") guard !audioEngine.isRunning else { print("SpeechService: Audio engine already running") return } do { try configureAudioSession() let recordingFormat = audioEngine.inputNode.outputFormat(forBus: 0) audioEngine.inputNode.removeTap(onBus: 0) guard let locale = await SpeechTranscriber.supportedLocale(equivalentTo: Locale(identifier: "en-US")) else { print("English is not supported on this device") return } let transcriber = SpeechTranscriber(locale: locale, preset: .transcription) if let installationRequest = try await AssetInventory.assetInstallationRequest(supporting: [transcriber]) { try await installationRequest.downloadAndInstall() } let (inputSequence, inputBuilder) = AsyncStream.makeStream(of: AnalyzerInput.self) let audioFormat = await SpeechAnalyzer.bestAvailableAudioFormat(compatibleWith: [transcriber]) let analyzer = SpeechAnalyzer(modules: [transcriber]) // Initialize the modern SpeechAnalyzer self.analyzer = analyzer task = Task { print("SpeechService: Starting analyzer results loop") do { for try await result in transcriber.results { if Task.isCancelled { break } self.handleAnalyzerResult(result) } } catch { print("SpeechService: Analyzer error: \(error.localizedDescription)") let nsError = error as NSError if nsError.domain == "kAFAssistantErrorDomain" && nsError.code == 203 { self.addLog(NSLocalizedString("error_siri_disabled", comment: "")) Task { await self.stopListening() } } else if self.isListening { self.restartRecognition() } } } audioEngine.inputNode.installTap(onBus: 0, bufferSize: 1024, format: recordingFormat) { [weak self]buffer, _ in guard let audioFormat else { return } do { let converted = try self!.converter.convertBuffer(buffer, to: audioFormat) inputBuilder.yield(AnalyzerInput(buffer: converted)) } catch { print("Exception when converting audio") } } audioEngine.prepare() try audioEngine.start() print("SpeechService: Audio engine started") try await analyzer.start(inputSequence: inputSequence) isListening = true addLog(NSLocalizedString("waiting_wakeup", comment: "")) } catch { print("SpeechService: Error starting listening: \(error.localizedDescription)") addLog("Error starting listening: \(error.localizedDescription)") lastError = error.localizedDescription isListening = false } } private func configureAudioSession() throws { let audioSession = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance() try audioSession.setCategory(.playAndRecord, mode: .default, options: [.mixWithOthers, .defaultToSpeaker]) try audioSession.setActive(true, options: .notifyOthersOnDeactivation) }