Inter-App Audio

Inter-App Audio (IAA) is a deprecated^[1] technology developed by Apple Inc. which routes audio and MIDI signals between applications on the iOS mobile operating system. The technology was first introduced in 2013 in iOS 7 and deprecated in 2019 with the release of iOS 13.

Inter-App Audio Block Diagram

Scope

Inter-App Audio is a host-plugin technology. An IAA host application connects to a node application to send and receive audio, MIDI, timeline information, and other signals.

Node applications

Node applications can be of the following types:

• Instruments (can receive MIDI signals and produce audio signals)
• Generators (can produce audio signals)
• Effects (can receive, transform and send back audio signals)

Limitations

At the moment, audio signal routing is only possible with a sampling rate of 44.1KHz.

Deprecation

Inter-App Audio was deprecated in 2019 with the release of iOS 13 in favor of the third version of Audio Units.^[2]

Competing technologies

• Audiobus
• Audio Units
• Ableton Link

References

1. "Apple Developer Documentation". developer.apple.com. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
2. "iOS Inter-App Audio is going away; Audiobus creator on what's next". CDM Create Digital Music. 2019-06-05. Retrieved 2022-10-13.

External links

• IAA Host Application List
• IAA Instrument Application List
• IAA Effect Application List
• Apple WWDC 2013: What's New in Core Audio for iOS