The state read-only property of the BaseAudioContext interface returns the current state of the AudioContext.

A string. Possible values are:

suspended

The audio context has been suspended (with the AudioContext.suspend() method.)

running

The audio context is running normally.

closed

The audio context has been closed (with the AudioContext.close() method.)

The following snippet is taken from our AudioContext states demo (see it running live.) The onstatechange handler is used to log the current state to the console every time it changes.

audioCtx.onstatechange = () => {
  console.log(audioCtx.state);
};

In iOS Safari, when a user leaves the page (e.g. switches tabs, minimizes the browser, or turns off the screen) the audio context's state changes to "interrupted" and needs to be resumed. For example:

function play() {
  if (audioCtx.state === "interrupted") {
    audioCtx.resume().then(() => play());
    return;
  }
  // rest of the play() function
}

• Using the Web Audio API