Overview
The Play Audio and Stop Audio actions manage audio playback. Use Play Audio to trigger narration, sound effects, or ambient audio. Use Stop Audio to silence audio clips or stop looping sounds. Multiple audio clips can play simultaneously, allowing you to layer narration over ambient sound or play multiple sound effects at once.Play Audio
When to Use
- Narration: voice-over instructions or explanations
- Sound effects: feedback tones, alert sounds, or interaction sounds
- Ambient audio: background music or environmental sounds
- Audio cues: alert the learner to important information
Parameters
After selecting an asset, expand Preview to listen to the clip and adjust Volume and Loop. These two settings update the Play Audio action and are saved with the training. The preview’s play, pause, seek, reset, and mute controls only affect playback in the editor.
Key Behavior
- Completion: With Wait Until Complete off, subsequent scene actions can start while audio is playing. To wait for narration to finish, turn Loop off and enable Wait Until Complete.
- Looping in Web Trainee App: Looping audio does not wait for completion, even when Wait Until Complete is enabled. Later scene actions can run while the loop continues. Leave Wait Until Complete disabled when configuring a loop.
- Simultaneous playback: You can add multiple Play Audio actions to the same action list, and they can overlap when Wait Until Complete is off.
- Targeted stopping: In Stop Audio, choose the Play Audio action from the Target Play Audio Action dropdown. The editor keeps the reference automatically.
Stop Audio
When to Use
- Interrupt narration: stop a narration clip if the learner advances before it finishes
- Ambient sound cleanup: stop looping ambient audio when exiting a step
- Layered audio: stop one audio clip while another continues
- Audio fallback: if audio is playing unexpectedly, stop it
Parameters
The dropdown lists Play Audio actions by name, with their step and action-list location. Select the action that started the audio you want to stop.
Key Behavior
- Default target: In Web Trainee App, Most recently started audio stops one active clip. Select a specific action when other audio must keep playing.
- Selective stop: Only the audio started by the selected Play Audio action stops; other clips continue.
- Already finished or stopped: If the selected audio is no longer playing, Stop Audio has no effect.
Practical Examples
Narration Before an Instruction
Scenario: Play an introduction, then show an instruction after the narration finishes.1
Configure the narration
In the step’s On Entry actions, add Play Audio and select the narration asset and version. Expand Preview, turn Loop off, and enable Wait Until Complete.
2
Add the following instruction
Add Show Text below Play Audio. Set Title to
Locate the Inlet Valve and Body to Find the inlet valve on the pump.3
Handle an early exit
In On Exit, add Stop Audio and select the narration action under Target Play Audio Action. This stops any remaining narration if the trainee leaves the step early.
4
Save and test
Save the training and enter the step. During uninterrupted playback, the instruction appears when the narration finishes. A Delay matching the estimated clip length is unnecessary.
Looping Ambient Sound
Scenario: With the factory scene already loaded, play background machinery noise during the Factory Floor step.1
Start the ambient loop
In On Entry, add Play Audio and select the machinery audio asset and version. In Preview, enable Loop and set Volume to 30%. Leave Wait Until Complete disabled so the step’s following scene actions can run.
2
Stop the loop when leaving
In On Exit, add Stop Audio. Under Target Play Audio Action, select the ambient Play Audio action from this step’s On Entry list.
3
Save and test
Confirm that the ambient audio repeats during the step and stops when a transition leaves it. Selecting the ambient action explicitly keeps other audio from being stopped by mistake.
Stop Interrupted Narration
Scenario: Let the trainee select an existing scene object to continue to the next step while narration is playing.1
Allow the narration to play in the background
Add Play Audio to On Entry and select the narration asset and version. Turn Loop off and leave Wait Until Complete disabled.
2
Configure the transition
Add a transition with a Tap event targeting the scene object used to continue. Set the transition’s destination to the next step.
3
Stop narration on exit
Add Stop Audio to the current step’s On Exit actions. In Target Play Audio Action, select this step’s narration action.
4
Save and test both cases
Select the object while narration is playing: the transition leaves the step, and Stop Audio stops the narration. Repeat after narration has finished: the transition still advances, and Stop Audio has no effect.
Audio plays from the system’s default audio output. If the learner’s device is muted, no sound will be heard. Some trainings may require captions or text alternatives for accessibility.