Seems when you’re listening to audio through the app (with the audio component) and you minimize the app, switch to another app (like say a text message or call comes in), or just turn off the screen, the audio fades out. Bummer, but seems to be a Safari limitation. However, what also happens is that when you return to Glide, the app is frozen. At least mine is. I have to restart it. I can’t imagine that’s what happens to any website playing audio when you switch away.
Can anyone else confirm this bug? The freeze didn’t happen every time, but I’d say about 9 times out of 10. And seems the only time it didn’t was when I returned to the app fairly quickly (within seconds).
There are a few other threads going about apps freezing in the last days and weeks. I reported my app both freezing and pages sticking. Just tagging @Jason here because he was looking into it. I don’t have audio files to check, but in any event there are multiple reports of freezing.
Actually, I’m testing audio in various iOS app browsers (brave, chrome, edge, safari itself) and it seems they all play audio just fine when the app is minimized/switched or the screen is locked. In fact, if I log into my Glide app through the mobile Safari browser (bypassing the “Add to Home Screen” step), I can play audio from the app just fine with the screen locked. Same attempt from the “installed” version of the app causes audio to fade out and app to freeze upon return.
Additionally, I tried going to a website with audio and Added it to Home Screen as a bookmark (which is what we’re doing when we add our Glide apps to the home screen… although I know there’s other stuff going on too). Then I opened that bookmark and tried playing the audio with screen locked, and it played just fine. Didn’t cut out or freeze.
Wow, what a buzz kill. Well, it would be nice if media played when the screen was locked, but it’s not a deal-breaker for me. However, if someone is listening to audio and they get a text message and switch over to it, or their phone auto-locks after a few seconds, coming back to a frozen app is a big problem.
I wouldn’t give up hope yet. Maybe Glide has some tricks up their sleeves to solve the audio and freezing issues. I just happen to see a trend in the forum with a lot of issues related to IOS only. With all of the anit-trust stuff going on with Apple right now, maybe they will back down a bit and be a little more open minded and less of a closed ecosystem.