[ajanuary]

The silence switch is intended to silence alert sounds. It doesn't silence audio initiated by the user. For example, playing music of video in Apple apps will still play out loud even when switched to silent. With no way of automatically telling what is initiated by the user and what isn't, it's left up to the app to decide.

I tend to always have my phone on silent so it's not a distraction if I get an email or text while talking to someone, but if I play a video I want it to actually make some noise. Google's YouTube app doesn't play audio if switched to silent, and it's frustrating having to frequently switch silent off.

Whether background music is initiated by the user or not is debatable. I'd say it isn't.

[moogleii]

This is exactly it, and the app for me was not doing learned expected behavior. "Learned" as in, beyond jasonlotito's black and white expected behavior. When I leave it on silent, I want all non-essential audio off, but if I'm going to play a podcast, clearly, I want it to play audio regardless.

Btw, the Youtube app did give me audio while the phone was set to silent.