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Android: every Audio now plays together by default

note

This guide is accurate as of Flet 1.1.0. Later releases might add new APIs or additional migration paths.

The breaking changes and deprecations index lists the guides created for each release.

Summary​

Flet 1.1.0 changes how an Audio with no context shares audio on Android.

  • Before: an Audio that started playing paused anything else that was playing, whether that was another app's audio or another Audio of the same app. The paused audio didn't resume on its own.
  • Now: the default is AudioFocus.DUCK_OTHERS. Every Audio of an app plays together, and other apps' audio usually gets quieter while the Audio plays, though some apps pause instead, especially for speech. It stays quieter while the Audio is paused, until the Audio is released or finishes after resuming.

The previous behavior is still available with AudioFocus.GAIN.

Only Android changes. On iOS, the default stays GAIN: an app's Audio never pause each other there, so the problem this fixes doesn't exist. Other apps' audio is therefore interrupted on iOS by default, and usually gets quieter on Android. Windows, macOS, Linux and web ignore context.

Symptoms​

No error is raised - the change is audible. On Android, after the upgrade:

  • A music player no longer stops the music of another app, which usually keeps playing at a lower volume.
  • Starting a track while another one plays makes both audible, where starting the new track used to silence the previous one.

Migration guide​

Music players​

To keep pausing other apps' audio, set focus to GAIN on the player:

import flet_audio as fta

player = fta.Audio(
    src="song.mp3",
    context=fta.AudioContext(focus=fta.AudioFocus.GAIN),
)

Leave short sound effects on the default. A GAIN player keeps playing while an effect with no context plays. Set focus to AudioFocus.MIX_WITH_OTHERS on an effect that shouldn't lower the volume of other apps either.

Playing one track at a time​

If your app relied on a new track silencing the previous one, pause the previous track yourself:

await current_track.pause()
await next_track.play()

Setting GAIN on every track also pauses the previous one, but on_state_change doesn't fire for that pause, so the paused track keeps reporting PLAYING. It stays paused, even after the other track stops, until resume() is called.

Apps that declare MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS​

Setting context in an app that declares the android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS permission resets the device's audio mode and turns its speakerphone off, which can interrupt a call that the app has in progress. See Audio.context.

No action needed for​

  • Apps that play sound effects over music, or several sounds at once. These now work with no context.
  • Apps that play a single Audio and are fine with other apps' audio getting quieter while it plays.
  • Apps that don't run on Android.

Timeline​

  • Changed in: 1.1.0

References​