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trifid

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 10, 2011
2,070
4,945
I've finally reached a point where this annoys me greatly, after so many years of using iOS: when a GPS app talks on top of a Podcast/Audiobook, I can't hear what's being said in the Podcast/Audiobook. Usually what I have to do is backtrack 30 seconds or so repeatedly which is not ideal especially while driving.

Imagine when a GPS app keeps repeating stuff just as you need to turn, ie easily it can talk 3-4 times the same thing in a short timeframe. This is extremely annoying and after years of use, I've finally reached a boiling point.

So the question is, does anyone care about this? Also, wouldn't it be awesome if, when a GPS gives you instructions, if it momentarily paused the Podcast/Audiobook? Is this technically so difficult that Apple still hasn't done it?

I know there is a jailbreak workaround but this works only with Apple Maps and of course it does require jailbreaking which I'm not fond of.

I've seen a couple of other threads here without much development, but it seems no one disputes the fact that pausing would be nice and desirable (pause over podcast/audiobook, not music). So the question is what's taking Apple so long, and can anything else be done to fix this?

Some older threads for reference:
How is there no GPS app for iPhone that can pause a podcast while speaking??
Pausing audiobooks in Apple/Google maps while speaking directions
 

NeshyD

macrumors regular
Apr 28, 2009
117
43
San Francisco, CA
In iOS 9.3, Apple is going to add the option to pause Podcasts, Audiobooks, or Music that is playing when using the Maps app. :)

Here is a screenshot of the setting from the beta:

asset.PNG
 
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trifid

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 10, 2011
2,070
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Haha wow nice! Great timing :D

A bit of a shame it took so many years to add this but oh well, could have been worse :rolleyes:
 
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spacemnspiff

macrumors 6502a
Feb 11, 2009
929
746
MD
In iOS 9.3, Apple is going to add the option to pause Podcasts, Audiobooks, or Music that is playing when using the Maps app. :)

Here is a screenshot of the setting from the beta:

View attachment 615099
This already exists in 9.2.1 and has been for quite a while, don't know when it got added. I am would also be annoyed if this happened and I didnt have control over it.

Edit: See a Macrumors post about this, it was available with iOS 9.0.2

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pause-spoken-audio-in-ios-9-0-2-with-apple-maps.1927178/
 
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C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,458
So what's the complaining about if it's been available for months now?
 

trifid

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 10, 2011
2,070
4,945
So what's the complaining about if it's been available for months now?

Honestly I didn't know it was added to to 9. Apple took too long though, there's been requests and complaints about this for years.

I also wonder if Apple added/updated an API for 3rd party developers like Google to add to Google maps, or if this is just in-house solution for Apple Maps, in which case this would still be an issue. Anyone know?
 

TRICKorDEVICE

macrumors 6502a
Sep 20, 2014
851
118
I've finally reached a point where this annoys me greatly, after so many years of using iOS: when a GPS app talks on top of a Podcast/Audiobook, I can't hear what's being said in the Podcast/Audiobook. Usually what I have to do is backtrack 30 seconds or so repeatedly which is not ideal especially while driving.

Imagine when a GPS app keeps repeating stuff just as you need to turn, ie easily it can talk 3-4 times the same thing in a short timeframe. This is extremely annoying and after years of use, I've finally reached a boiling point.

So the question is, does anyone care about this? Also, wouldn't it be awesome if, when a GPS gives you instructions, if it momentarily paused the Podcast/Audiobook? Is this technically so difficult that Apple still hasn't done it?

I know there is a jailbreak workaround but this works only with Apple Maps and of course it does require jailbreaking which I'm not fond of.

I've seen a couple of other threads here without much development, but it seems no one disputes the fact that pausing would be nice and desirable (pause over podcast/audiobook, not music). So the question is what's taking Apple so long, and can anything else be done to fix this?

Some older threads for reference:
How is there no GPS app for iPhone that can pause a podcast while speaking??
Pausing audiobooks in Apple/Google maps while speaking directions


This has already been fixed, Apple just needs to incorporate their own API's. I use Overcast and it takes advantage of this. When listening to podcasts on Overcast and using Maps navigation, Overcast will pause its audio while the Maps verbal directions are spoken. If you have this option turned on in maps settings, any App that utilizes this API should pause while the directions are spoken. It is a minor, but great feature.

Pocket Casts is coming out with their new update soon (finally...they haven't updated since 2014). I'm really hoping they use this API (and include a native Apple Watch app).
 
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spacemnspiff

macrumors 6502a
Feb 11, 2009
929
746
MD
I tried Waze last night and Waze hasn't been making use of the pause music/audio API, in fact Waze was updated on Feb 7. On a different note Waze also doesn't use the location services with 'While using' option, it needs to be turned to 'Always on'.
 
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