[BUG]Play/pause of media not working on Airpods while app is running

[Daniel-E-N]

Describe the bug

[BUG] I can not press to play/pause media on my Airpods Pro when the app is open on my Macbook

Reproduction steps

1. Open the app (dictation not active)
2. Connect Apple AirPods to Mac
3. Play media (YouTube, Spotify, etc.)
4. Press to play/pause on the AirPods
5. It does not play pr pause the media - you just get a "du du du" sound, and the media keep playing

Expected behavior

It should just allow me to play/pause media while not actively dictating

Actual behavior

It does not allow me to use the play/pause press on my Airpods

App Version

v1.6.5

macOS Version

macOS 26.5.2

Architecture

Apple Silicon

Logs or crash report

Screenshots or screen recording

No response

[grohith327]

Hey @Daniel-E-N, thanks for filing an issue. I was able to reproduce this. The issue here is that FluidVoice holds the bluetooth device all the time (for latency and state management) and as a result, apps like spotify or YT cannot listen to the start/stop clicks on the Airpods. Now, we can deallocate the audio engine but we have add some deadlock issues in the past (although some recent PRs I made would address this).

One workaround that you can use is, select the Macbook micrphone as your input device, this way FluidVoice doesn't hold control of your bluetooth device even during idle periods. Check screenshot below.

So, the overall point is, I would rather fix this in the new CoreAudio path if the workaround proposed above is something you can leverage. Hence, the hesitancy. Let me know what works for you, thanks!