Question

I’d like to code my phonegap app so at a minimum the audio that is streaming/playing can stay active across pages. Even better would be a way to have it interact with the OS and stop when a call comes in or they play their own music or something else.

Has anyone accomplished either of these things yet?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The PhoneGap Media API plays just fine in the background on both iOS and Android.

In iOS you have to make sure to set the required background modes to include playback of audio:

“Support for some types of background execution must be declared in advance by the app that uses them. An app declares support for a service using its Info.plist file. Add the UIBackgroundModes key to your Info.plist file and set its value to an array containing one or more of the following strings:

audio—The app plays audible content to the user while in the background. (This content includes streaming audio or video content using AirPlay.)”

I don’t think anything extra is required for Android.

NOTE: If you have multiple “pages” in your app and music must continue to play amongst them, be sure that the page changes are not actually “file” changes (i.e.: you are still really displaying index.html, just changing content via js/ajax/etc). The common mobile JS frameworks handle this just fine (jQuery Mobile, jQTouch, etc etc).