The Podcasts or Music Apps play something random when I hit “play” in OTHER apps…Why can’t I select the source of my audio so I can prevent Music and Podcasts from ruining my use of all other audio applications?!

This is a basic problem with the Podcasts App and iOS. Whenever I push play on a completely different different app on my iPhone, Podcasts begin playing instead of what I clicked to play in an entirely different app. It happens with ALL other apps on the iPhone. I’ve closed all my applications, and restarted my iPhone. It never stops. This is a problem with the “Auto-Play” feature and the fact I cannot disable Podcasts or Music from playing whatever they want over what I wanted to play from a totally different app.

I never want the Podcasts or Music apps to automatically play ANYTHING, particularly when they are doing so in a way that prevents me using ANY of my other music apps, or even iMessage to listen to voice texts.

I quit the Podcast app, and I removed the downloads, and it immediate played again as if I never closed it and removed the download. I restarted my iPhone, as soon as I hit the play button in iMessages it begins playing the same Podcast again. It did this after restarting my iPhone. I can’t win.

Why can’t I select the source of where my audio is coming from?! I would like the option to pick which app I want to be playing at a given time, instead of Podcasts or Music playing whenever it wants to, preventing my use of other apps? This is even true of Apple’s own apps. Why is it obvious that Podcasts takes precedence over Music, and they both take precedence over everything else, even iMessages? It seems like I shouldn’t have to say that I want to listen to the thing I’m clicking “play” on, and not a podcast or some random selection from my music library.

Every computer has the option to select what app is playing something. They seem to all come with an OS X that gives you the ability to silence one app and play from a different app. What is wrong with the iPhone that it doesn’t have that capability?! I just want to select what I want to be playing, without Music or Podcasts playing instead. It makes no sense to me. I hate Auto-Play and I want it to at least be able to be turned off in Settings.

I have an iPhone 13 that is updated to the latest operating system. Nothing should be preventing my iPhone from behaving in a perfectly normal manner.