Known Issues

I try to keep everything working as well as I know how, but there are still some issues which elude my expertise. If you have suggestions on how to fix any of these, please drop me a line.

I'm targeting compatibility with Chrome as old as 49 and Firefox as old as 52, which were the last versions of those browsers available on Windows XP. This seems to also give me good coverage over Safari on macOS as well as iOS and Android browsers. If you notice an issue in anything newer than those old relics, please let me know.

iOS Background Audio

Since iOS 15, it seems like audio playback stops when Safari is not in the foreground. The audio usually stops at the end of the current song. What I'm seeing in the debugger is that the Limo successfully gets the next song and asks Safari to play it. Safari agrees and even comes back a moment later to say that playback has started. But no audio is played. Sometimes the audio will stop sooner: when the screen turns off or shortly after.

I think this is likely related to an ongoing string of bugs and changes to how Safari handles background audio (going back to at least 2019 as far as I know). As of iOS 16, we're still seeing this behavior. At this point, I think it's probably a deliberate choice on Apple's part to save energy and prevent abuse by pushy websites. I think they'd rather have serious background audio applications go through the App Store, where they can review them and exercise more control to make sure listeners get a good experience.

To that end, I've build and published Lofi Limo iPhone app! If you'd like to listen on your phone, I think this is the best way.

iOS Volume Control

Volume control is not available on iOS. It seems that Safari on iOS does not support changing the volume on an individual audio element nor does it seem to expose master-volume control to websites. What I'm seeing in the debugger is that Safari allows the volume to be changed and even reports the new volume level but then changes it back immediately afterwards.

This looks to me like a design choice on Apple's part. I don't expect them to change it in the near future.

You should be able to adjust playback volume using the hardware buttons on the side of your device, using voice commands, or any of the usual ways to change the master-volume.

Aaron D. Parks
Parks Digital LLC
support@parksdigital.com