You probably thought, you just need to design the visual mock ups, and design the whole visual interaction. But have you thought of an audio in your app? It's an important part of the app design. So let's dive into this topic now. With a sound is the primary aspect of your apps experience, or an embellishment, you need to know how people expect the sound to behave in meet those expectations. Even if you have a general simple app, you should include some helping sounds like a sound of an incoming message.

For example, users manipulate sound through the volume buttons, silence which headphone controls and the on screen volume slider. Many third party accessories include sound controls to audio can be output through internal or external speakers, headphones, and even wirelessly through an airplay enabled or Bluetooth device. Let's take a look at different cases in regard to the audio That is the silent mode, volume control and usage of headphones. Silence people switch their device to silent to avoid being interrupted by unexpected sounds, such as ring tones and incoming message songs. They also want non essential sounds disabled, including keyboard sounds, sound effects, game soundtracks, and other audible feedback when the device is set to silent, only explicitly initiated sound through the cure, such as audio to your immediate playback alarms and audio video messaging, volume whether using physical device buttons, or an on screen slider, people expect changes in volume to affect all sounds system wide, including music and in app sound effects.

The only exception is the ringer volume, which is always adjusted separately when older. Isn't actively playing headphones. People use headphones to hear sound privately and to free their hands. When plugging in headphones, users expect sound to reroute automatically without interruption when unplugging headphones to expect playback to pause immediately. Let's go over some guidelines on how you should work with audio. First, adjust levels automatically when necessary, but not the overall volume.

Your app can adjust relative independent volume levels to achieve a great mix of audio. However, the final output should always be governed by the system volume. permit or rerouting of audio when appropriate. People often want to select a different audio output device. For example, they may want to listen to music through the living room, stereo, car, radio or Apple TV support. capability unless there is a compelling reason not to use the system provided volume view to allow audio adjustments.

The best way to provide interface controls for adjusting audio is to use a volume view. These views customizable, includes a volume levels slider, and even includes a control for rerouting audio output. Use the system sound services for short sounds and vibrations. System sound Services provides an interface for playing short sounds and for invoking vibration on iOS devices that support vibration. You can use system sound services to play short 30 seconds or shorter sounds. The interface does not provide level positioning, looping or timing control and does not support simultaneous playback.

You can play only one sound at the time. You can use system sound services to provide audible alerts on some iOS devices. As alerts can include vibration. categorize your audio if sound is essential to your app. Different audio categories allow sounds to be silenced by the silent switch to mix with other audio or to play while your app is in the background. Pick a category based on its meaning, and the current audio state of the device and assign it to your audio sessions.

For example, don't make people stop listening to music from another app if you don't need to. In general, it's best to avoid changing the category while your app is running. With the exception of apps that record and playback audio at different times, the correct category can actually make or break your app. For instance, once I wanted to be able to lock the screen, and keep listening to the music via the YouTube app, but the YouTube app was not supporting it. And moreover, it was just stopping the playback completely. So I couldn't listen to the music in the background mode.

I get really frustrated. Background mode means that the app is minimized. And you could be using another app on top of it, or when you lock the screen. So let's take a closer look at these categories. First one is the solo ambient, it means that the sound isn't essential, but it silences other audio. For example, again with the soundtrack, it responds to the silence which it doesn't mix with the other sounds, it doesn't play in the background.

Then, ambient sound isn't essential. And it doesn't silence other audio. For example, a game that lets people play music from another app during gameplay in place of the game soundtrack responds to the silence which mixes with other sounds doesn't play in the background. This is the category you're most likely to use for your apps sounds Like audio feedback for actions, incoming messages, etc. In playback category, the sound is essential and might mix with other audio. For example, an audio book or educational app that teaches a foreign language, which people might want to listen to after leaving the app doesn't respond to the silence, which may or may not mix with the other sounds can play in the background.

This is the more the YouTube app should have used. A record category means that sound is recorded. For example, a note taking app that offers an audio recording mode, and app of this nature might switch its category to playback. If it lets people also to play the recorded notes. doesn't respond to the silence which doesn't mix with the other sounds can record in the background, play and record category means that sound recorded and played, potentially simultaneously. For example, in audio messaging or video calling app, he doesn't respond to the silence which it may or may not mix with the other sounds, it can record and play in the background.

Let's move on to the other guidelines on these topic. Resume audio playback when appropriate, after an interruption occurs. Sometimes, currently playing audio is interrupted by an audio from a different app. Temporary interruptions such as incoming phone calls, I consider resumable permanence or options such as music playlist initiated by Siri up and cedar nonrenewable. When the resumable interruption occurs, your options resume playback when the interruption ends, if audio was actively playing when the interruption started, for example, I gained playing the soundtrack In the media app in the process of playing audio should both resume and app not playing audio when the interruption occurs has nothing to resume. let other apps know when your app finishes playing temporary audio.

If your app might temporarily interrupting audio of other apps, it should flag audio sessions appropriately, so other apps get notified when it's safe to respond to audio controls only when it makes sense. People can control audio playback from outside of your apps interface, such as in control center or with controls on the headphones. Regardless of whether your app is in the foreground or background. If your app is actively playing audio in a clear audio related context, or connected to an airplane enabled device, it's fine to respond to audio controls. Otherwise your app shouldn't hold and other apps audio that be playing when the control is activated. This is interesting one.

Don't repurpose audio controls. People expect audio controls to behave consistently in all apps never define the meaning of an audio control. If your app doesn't support them controls, then it simply shouldn't respond to them.