Automattic / Automattic/pocket-casts-android

Wear OS audio stutters randomly during playback

Open
#1,113 6 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
[Area] Wear OS [Priority] Low [Type] Bug
Dominant language
Kotlin
Stars
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Forks
308
Avg merge
1d 13h
Merged PRs (30d)
143

Description

### Description

I've found two main issues with the Wear OS app.

1. Often, though my earbuds are paired to the watch per the Bluetooth settings, I'll hit Play on the Pocket Casts app but no sound comes through. Sometimes this is persistent (I'll wait up to 30 seconds and I hear no sound), and sometimes it resolves itself after 10 seconds or so.
2. During playback, the audio will suddenly start skipping and stuttering - or more accurately, it seems like it's pausing without being told to pause, and despite the controls showing that it's still in "Play." I'm sure it's not actually just skipping audio, because it will go silent in the middle of a sentence and then start up again in the same spot 10-30 seconds later. Sometimes it will do this a dozen times in a row, sometimes I'll go all day and have no problems. It's hard to predict, but this doesn't happen with other on-watch audio apps like YouTube Music, so I don't think it's solely a Bluetooth issue.

### Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. hit "play" on a podcast episode
2. get asked to pair with Bluetooth (or not, if Bluetooth headphones are already paired)
3. no sound

### Screenshots or screen recording

_No response_

### Did you search for existing bug reports?

- [X] I have searched for existing bug reports.

### Device, Operating system, and Pocket Casts app version

Google Pixel 6 with Android 13 TQ3A.230605.010, Pocket Casts for Wear OS 7.41-rc-3w.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing playback on the reported Pixel 6, Android 13, and Wear OS app version with paired Bluetooth earbuds, following the listed Play steps. Trace the Wear OS playback and Bluetooth path from the Play action; done means audio starts reliably and does not pause or stutter during playback.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
android, kotlin
Domain
mobile
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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