Force Audio to Play on Phone or Other Source

AnkiMobile (iPhone/iPad) Help
1

Hi Damien,

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve posted (and first time on the new forums), I hope you’ve been well.

I thought of a potential feature the other day that I thought I’d bring up; the option to force the audio to play on the phone or another source. For reference, the Waze app currently supports this type of feature.

The issue I run into is when I’m in the car with other people, I try to get in reviews while parked. However, my phone is connected to CarPlay and the audio by default plays over the car speakers (interrupting whatever music we currently have playing), so I’m forced to turn off wifi and bluetooth when I want to review in the car. I’ve tried using the native iOS speaker selection from the Control Center but it just reverts back to playing through the CarPlay.

Would this be a feasible addition at some point?

2

I can’t seem to reproduce this issue with either a bluetooth or AirPlay connection, so it seems like Apple may be doing something special with CarPlay. Perhaps the Always Duck+Ignore Mute option in the Review preferences will make a difference?

3

It looks like you are correct that it’s a CarPlay issue. If I turn it off, choosing the phone in the Control Center as the speaker selection doesn’t revert back upon reviewing the next card.

Unfortunately, the Always Duck+Ignore Mute option didn’t help when CarPlay is enabled. Is the force speaker selection option within AnkiMobile something that could be implemented in the future?

4

I’ll certainly keep an eye on demand for such a feature. In the mean time, other things you could possibly try:

  • if audio is supplementary and not necessary to answer the card, you could flip the phone’s vibrate switch to turn off auto-play
  • I wonder what happens if you plug some headphones in?