Background, Lock Screen & CarPlay

Keep listening with the screen off, control playback from the lock screen, and connect to CarPlay.

Squabble keeps playing after you lock your phone, switch apps, or plug into your car, and hands you the same controls wherever you're listening from. This page covers background playback, lock screen and Control Center controls, and CarPlay.

Listening in the background

Once a book is playing, you can lock your phone, switch to another app, or put your phone away entirely — Squabble keeps going. Mobile app

Lock screen and Control Center

Whenever a book is playing, your device's lock screen and Control Center show the book's cover, title, and chapter, with playback controls: play/pause, skip forward, skip backward, and scrub — all reflecting whatever speed and skip intervals you've set. See Speed and Skip Intervals. None of this requires opening Squabble first.

CarPlay

Connect your phone to a car with CarPlay and the same Now Playing information and controls appear on your car's screen automatically — cover art, title, chapter, and play/skip controls. It's the same system surface iOS uses for the lock screen and Control Center, so there's no separate setup: if Squabble is your active audio app, CarPlay picks it up.

Reveals while backgrounded

Timestamp Comments don't stop unlocking just because you're not looking at the screen. If a hidden guildmate comment crosses your Furthest Position while you're listening in the background, Squabble sends a system notification instead of the in-player toast — so you still find out, just through a different surface. Turn this on or off independently in Notification Preferences.