Craig Hockenberry

One of the hardest things about being a Mac developer is wading through tons of search results for APIs that only exist on iOS.

Looking at you, AVAudioSession.

If anyone knows how to detect if AirPlay is active on a Mac, I'd love to know! I already know how to do it on iOS 😉

Feb 13, 2023 at 9:12pmWeb
Show threadCraig HockenberryFeb 13, 2023

Thankfully, there are fewer and fewer cases where this is an issue. Apple continues to get better at cross platform support.

One of the benefits of SwiftUI and Mac Catalyst, even if you don't use them.

Show threadJustin FerrellFeb 13, 2023
@chockenberry the only option is a handwritten request to Tim Apple himself
Show threadJustin FerrellFeb 13, 2023
@chockenberry and even that doesn’t work in Ventura
Show threadWilliamFeb 13, 2023
@chockenberry cc @edwellbrook
Show threadAdrian Schönig Feb 13, 2023
@chockenberry Don't leave me hanging. How do you do it on iOS?
Show threadCraig HockenberryFeb 13, 2023
@nighthawk AVAudioSession.shared.currentRoute.outputs has one or more portType for AirPlay.
Show threadAdrian Schönig Feb 13, 2023
@chockenberry Sweet. Thanks!
Show threadJeff ClatworthyFeb 13, 2023
@chockenberry Have you hit up @marcoarment ? Marco's been smashing his head against the AirPlay system for yonks. Hopefully he's got the info to go with his concussion.
Show threadMarco ArmentFeb 14, 2023

@jeffcgd @chockenberry Sorry, I only know it from the iOS side.

When Overcast runs on the Mac (in “made for iPad” mode), the stock AirPlay-picker control doesn’t even render. Seems like it’s basically unsupported.

Show threadJohn GordonFeb 14, 2023

@marcoarment @jeffcgd @chockenberry

This would be an interesting ChatGPT question 


Show threadJeff ClatworthyFeb 14, 2023

@jgordon @marcoarment @chockenberry

Probably not, presuming you actually wanted to get the RIGHT answer, as opposed to just a confident sounding wrong one.

Show threadJohn GordonFeb 14, 2023

@jeffcgd @marcoarment @chockenberry

I’ve read that ChatGPT is actually pretty good at this type of question. I’ll try if I remember. Bookmarking for now.

Show threadJohn GordonFeb 14, 2023

@jeffcgd @marcoarment @chockenberry

(On reflection Google is awful when the answer is “no” or “that can’t be done as far as I know”. I gather ChatGPT is even worse at “knowing what it doesn’t know”.)

Show threadRobFeb 14, 2023
@jgordon @jeffcgd @marcoarment @chockenberry
I’m my experience it pretends to know based on your question. I’ve had plenty of Swift answers that look right but don’t work. ChatGPT has no knowledge of the API. It’s just a language model.
Show threadJohn GordonFeb 14, 2023

@robmac @jeffcgd @marcoarment @chockenberry

I've not done much with ChatGPT so my prompt was off. Not a terribly useful answer for Craig I think.

Show threadRobFeb 14, 2023
@jgordon @jeffcgd @marcoarment @chockenberry
Here is ChatGPT making up shit as usual. Searching the API finds nothing for “.withAirPlay”.
Show threadRobFeb 14, 2023
@jgordon @jeffcgd @marcoarment @chockenberry
And then it makes up something else that doesn’t work.
Show threadRobFeb 14, 2023

@jgordon @jeffcgd @marcoarment @chockenberry
Then it came up with this, after I complained that the function on returned whether AirPlay was available, not active. I have no idea if this works or not. My hunch is that it won’t work.

func isAirPlayActive() -> Bool {
guard let mainScreen = NSScreen.main else {
return false
}
let options = mainScreen.deviceDescription[NSDeviceDescriptionKey("AirPlayDisplay") as NSDeviceDescriptionKey] as? [String: Any]
return options?["DeviceInUse"] as? Bool == true
}