AudioContext: sinkId property

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The sinkId read-only property of the AudioContext interface returns the sink ID of the current output audio device.

Value

This property returns one of the following values, depending on how the sink ID was set:

An empty string

If a sink ID has not explicitly been set, the default system audio output device will be used, and sinkId will return an empty string.

A string

If the sink ID is set as a string value (using setSinkId(), or the sinkId AudioContext() constructor option), sinkId will return that same string value.

An AudioSinkInfo object

If the sink ID is set as an options object (using setSinkId(), or the sinkId AudioContext() constructor option), sinkId will return an AudioSinkInfo object reflecting the same values set in the initial options object.

Examples

In our SetSinkId test example, we create an audio graph that generates a three-second burst of white noise via an AudioBufferSourceNode, which we also run through a GainNode to quiet things down a bit. We also provide the user with a dropdown menu to allow them to change the audio output device.

When the Play button is clicked, we assemble the audio graph and start it playing, and we also log information about the current device to the console based on the value of sinkId:

  • An empty string means the default device is still being used.
  • If the value is an object, the audio will not be playing on any device because we set an options object containing type: 'none'.
  • Otherwise the value will be a sink ID string, so we log that.
playBtn.addEventListener("click", () => {
  const source = audioCtx.createBufferSource();
  source.buffer = myArrayBuffer;
  source.connect(gain);
  gain.connect(audioCtx.destination);
  source.start();

  if (audioCtx.sinkId === "") {
    console.log("Audio playing on default device");
  } else if (
    typeof audioCtx.sinkId === "object" &&
    audioCtx.sinkId.type === "none"
  ) {
    console.log("Audio not playing on any device");
  } else {
    console.log(`Audio playing on device ${audioCtx.sinkId}`);
  }
});

Specifications

Specification
Web Audio API
# dom-audiocontext-sinkid

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also