Phone's receiver is forced as output when in PiP mode

[alvarezGarciaMarcos]

Hello everyone,

First of all, sorry if I don't tag the issue correctly. I don't know if it is a bug in the SDK so I rather ask here with a blank issue prior to report it as a real bug because maybe is a misconfiguration from my side.

The problem that I am facing is the following:
When I am in a videocall (let's say that we are only two people in the call), the phone's speaker is the output of the currentRoute of the audioSession. When I enter into PiP mode, the phone changes the output to be the receiver instead (which is a weird behavior from the user's perspective). I've hooked myself into the AVAudioSession.routeChangeNotification to see what happens, and the reason that I see in that case is categoryChange. Now, as the SDK is handling the AVAudioSession, I cannot change this behavior.

As I've seen in the documentation, I should use a AudioSessionPolicy along with the CallSettings to control this behavior. Currently, I am testing with this configuration:

let callSettings = CallSettings(audioOn: true, videoOn: true, speakerOn: true, audioOutputOn: true)
let call = client.call(callType: .default, callId: callID, callSettings: callSettings)
let policy = DefaultAudioSessionPolicy()

Task {
    await call.updateAudioSessionPolicy(policy)
    try await call.join(create: false)
    self.callViewController.viewModel.setActiveCall(call)
}

Now, am I doing something wrong? Is there any configuration missing to force the built-in speaker of the phone to be the output while in PiP? Or is there a way to handle the AVAudioSession all by myself instead of relying on the SDK for that?

Note: This behavior (defaulting to built-in receiver) also happens when I connect a bluetoothHFP device and disconnect it.

If this issue does not belong here, I would gladly move this to wherever it belongs.
Thank you in advance.

[ipavlidakis]

Hey @alvarezGarciaMarcos,

Thanks for reaching out. Indeed the behaviour you are describing is weird and it's not what it should be happening.

Is there any chance you can provide us with:

• the call id from a call that you observed this behaviour
• logs from a call where this is happening

Best regards,
Ilias

[alvarezGarciaMarcos]

Hi there, @ipavlidakis. Thank you for your response!

I can provide a little sample project where I reproduce the issue, I can upload it as a public project to my GitHub account, email it to you or send it to you however you find it easier. For testing this I am using the credentials provided on GetStream's guide.

Best regards,
Marcos

[ipavlidakis]

Hey @alvarezGarciaMarcos,

A public project on Github would work.

Thanks,
Ilias

[alvarezGarciaMarcos]

Hey, @ipavlidakis

I've created this repo where the issue can be reproduced. The main file is the GetStreamViewController, where almost the whole code resides.
If you have any doubt about anything in the project, feel free to ask.

Best regards,
Marcos

[ipavlidakis]

Hey @alvarezGarciaMarcos,

Thanks for taking the time to provide the repo. I tried it and unfortunately i wasn't able to reproduce the problem. In order to be certain, i made small changes and added the Speaker control in the ControlsView. In that way i was able to confirm that nothing was toggling it. I have attached a small video from my attempt.

ScreenRecording_08-21-2025.13-43-29_1.MP4

The next steps in order to help us understand will be to attach some logs from a call where you are actively reproducing the problem.

Best regards,
Ilias

[alvarezGarciaMarcos]

Hey, @ipavlidakis, thank you for your quick response. Something that I did not mention, and I apologize for that, is that we've reproduced the issue on iOS 17 (and also iOS 16 if I recall correctly). You are currently on iOS 26 where I was able to see that everything worked correctly. I do not have iOS 26 on my device anymore, but I can try to see if I can reproduce the issue on iOS 18.6.

I can provide some logs without a problem, is there a particular way to get them from the SDK or the console output would suffice?

Best regards,
Marcos

[ipavlidakis]

Hey @alvarezGarciaMarcos,

That's indeed quite an important information. It will be great if you can verify if the issue exists on iOS 18+.

For the logs, you need to set the following in your AppDelegate.

LogConfig.level = .debug
LogConfig.webRTCLogsEnabled = false
LogConfig.destinationTypes = [ConsoleLogDestination.self]

• Note: Do not perform any filtering on the logs before sending them.

After that, just grab the logs from the console output, paste them in a .txt file and attach them here.

Best regards,
Ilias

[alvarezGarciaMarcos]

Hey @ipavlidakis,
I've tested the project on iOS 18.6, and I can see that the issue is not reproduced in this version. I've also extracted logs from both iOS 17.6 and iOS 18.6.

iOS 17.6
iOS 18.6

Best regards,
Marcos

[ipavlidakis]

Hey @alvarezGarciaMarcos,

Thanks for providing the logs. So, the issue you are describing in this ticket isn't visible from the logs you sent. I don't see any action turning your audio output from speaker to earpiece. Also i don't see any transitions to PiP or in general moving the app to background.

On the other hand, I'm seeing a lot of errors which you should look into fixing as they seem to be related to how you setup your user and token.

 - location: Optional(StreamVideo.ClientError.Location(file: "StreamVideo/WebSocketClient.swift", line: 226))
 - message: Optional("The operation couldn’t be completed. (StreamVideo.APIError error 1.)")
 - underlyingError: Optional(Type: APIError
 - code: 4
 - exceptionFields: Optional(["user_details.id": "user_details.id is not a valid user id. a-z, 0-9, @, _ and - are allowed."])
 - message: user_details.id is not a valid user id. a-z, 0-9, @, _ and - are allowed.
 - statusCode: 400)
 - apiError: Optional(Type: APIError
 - code: 4
 - exceptionFields: Optional(["user_details.id": "user_details.id is not a valid user id. a-z, 0-9, @, _ and - are allowed."])
 - message: user_details.id is not a valid user id. a-z, 0-9, @, _ and - are allowed.
 - statusCode: 400))))

[alvarezGarciaMarcos]

Hey, @ipavlidakis

I've fixed the problem with the user id but I've been able to reproduce the error the first time the call goes to background and PiP kicks in. In the following log I've entered into the call, went to PiP (when the audio starts going through the earpiece), back to the app again, back to PiP again (this time, the issue was not present and the audio was routed through the speaker).

You can find the log here.

Best regards,
Marcos

[ipavlidakis]

Hey @alvarezGarciaMarcos,

Something is off with the logs or with your setup. I don't see:

• any reference that the app was moved to background or pip was enabled/disabled
• any places where the speaker setting was changed

Can you share quick demo video showing the issue?

Following up questions:

• Are you integrating on your side with AVAudioSession? If yes, how? Can you share the code?
• Are you implementing your own Picture-in-Picture logic? If yes, how? Can you share the code?

Best regards,
Ilias

[alvarezGarciaMarcos]

Hi, @ipavlidakis
Indeed the logs I exported where not okay, pasted the log to a txt file and now I can see the appDidEnterBackground in the logs. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Here's the correct error file. This was reproduced in iOS 17.6.

Best regards,
Marcos

[ipavlidakis]

Hey @alvarezGarciaMarcos,

Thanks for the correct log. Can we please go back on the things that i asked here and specifically on the demo video and the 2 questions.

As as side note, may i ask you to try and see if you can reproduce the issue with the latest develop rather than the 1.30.0 release?

Best regards,
Ilias

[alvarezGarciaMarcos]

Hi, @ipavlidakis
Sorry for the delay in the response. I don't really know how I can provide a meaningful video for the issue because it involves the audio coming out of the earpiece and I cannot screen record that. Would you appreciate a video of the issue recorded with a third phone?

To respond to your previous questions:

• Are you integrating on your side with AVAudioSession? If yes, how? Can you share the code? Currently, I am using the code that I've uploaded to the public repository I've shared with you previously, without any messing around with the AVAudioSession. The AVAudioSession is entirely managed by GetStream's SDK in this example.
• Are you implementing your own Picture-in-Picture logic? If yes, how? Can you share the code? The PiP is also managed entirely by GetStream's SDK so no external code from my side

I've tried now with the develop branch and the issue is still present. To reproduce it I've done the following:

• Both iPhones are on the same call.
• The one presenting the issue (iPhone 12 Mini | iOS 17) is configured with the mic off and the camera on. The other is configured with camera off and mic on. The audio on the iPhone 12 Mini at this stage is coming out of the speaker.
• The iPhone 12 Mini enters PiP mode, at this point, the audio starts coming out of the earpiece. Sometimes, audio stays being outputted through the earpiece even after entering again from PiP mode, although in these cases, activating and deactivating the camera seems to somehow make audio come out of the speaker again.