Ubuntu may re-enable a nifty feature in PulseAudio that pauses or mutes music and video when an incoming VoIP call is received.
This feature, which is provided by a PulseAudio plugin called Cork, has been disabled in PulseAudio on Ubuntu until now because it doesn’t play nice with the Qt Skype client.
But with the Qt Skype client now end-of-life – sob – that particular issue is moot. Ubuntu no longer needs to carry a patch to disable the feature.
That doesn’t meant that other side effects won’t be at play. To this end the Ubuntu desktop team’s Will Cooke is asking for volunteers on Ubuntu 17.04 or 17.10 to install an experimental Cork-enabled PulseAudio from a PPA to check for other issues.
Should no further errant issues be detected it’s quite possible that the feature will make it into Ubuntu 17.10 this October.
And if it does you can look forward to your music politely pausing or muting itself when you receive a VoIP call.
Dropping the cork patch isn’t the only Skype-related change headed to Ubuntu. I noticed earlier this week that the sni-qt packages used to make the Skype tray icon appear in Unity is no longer listed as a ‘recommends’ dependency in the Ubuntu meta package.