Bug 271462 – [GStreamer] Audio recorded via WebKit in WhatsApp voice messages is of low quality.

• Status: NEW
• Component: WebKitGTK

[Angelo Schirinzi]

Audio recorded via WebKit in WhatsApp voice messages is of low quality.

There are several GStreamer bugs on WebKit with the use of WhatsApp. Please consider giving a chance to this too: Bug 267809.

Thank you for your precious work!

[Philippe Normand]

Please provide details about this, because afaik that feature requires usermedia (mic) capture support and capture permission handling in the UI process, none of those are enabled by default... so...

Which version of webkitgtk are you referring to?
How did you get it (distro? or some flatpak app packaging it?)

[Angelo Schirinzi]

(In reply to Philippe Normand from comment #1)
> Please provide details about this, because afaik that feature requires
> usermedia (mic) capture support and capture permission handling in the UI
> process, none of those are enabled by default... so...
> 
> Which version of webkitgtk are you referring to?
> How did you get it (distro? or some flatpak app packaging it?)

I apologize for the omissions. I try to give you all the information I have and you need. If something is missing I need you to guide me to understand how to provide it to you:

Linux 6.7.9
Fedora 39
GNOME 45.5
GNOME Web (epiphany) 45.2 (rpm; no flatpak)
WebKitGTK 2.42.5
GStreamer 1.22.9

I want to specify that audio recording via GStreamer works perfectly in other applications, such as gnome-sound-recorder and snapshot.

[Philippe Normand]

Ah I forgot Ephy handles those permission requests.

I can't reproduce this issue in Ephy TP (flatpak), using WebKitGTK 2.44.0 and GStreamer 1.22.10. Please upgrade to those versions and try again.

[Philippe Normand]

What do you mean with low quality? Can you record the file, maybe with OBS or GNOME's screencast tool?

Also please attach a gst debug log, set these env vars: GST_DEBUG="3,webkit*:6" GST_DEBUG_FILE=gst.log and attach the gst.log file here.

[Angelo Schirinzi]

(In reply to Philippe Normand from comment #3)
> Ah I forgot Ephy handles those permission requests.
> 
> I can't reproduce this issue in Ephy TP (flatpak), using WebKitGTK 2.44.0
> and GStreamer 1.22.10. Please upgrade to those versions and try again.

I still can't use this configuration in Fedora 39.

[Angelo Schirinzi]

(In reply to Philippe Normand from comment #4)
> What do you mean with low quality? Can you record the file, maybe with OBS
> or GNOME's screencast tool?
> 
> Also please attach a gst debug log, set these env vars:
> GST_DEBUG="3,webkit*:6" GST_DEBUG_FILE=gst.log and attach the gst.log file
> here.

Empty log file with GST_DEBUG_FILE=gst.log


So I attach this:
GST_DEBUG_NO_COLOR=1 GST_DEBUG=3,webkit*:6 epiphany --application-mode --profile= ... 2> gst.log

WhatsApp audio recorder is unusable with WebKit. It freezes and the recording does not start immediately. Stopping the recording is also problematic.

[Angelo Schirinzi]

Created attachment 470588 [details]
gst.log file

[Philippe Normand]

Can you send another log, with GST_DEBUG=3,webkit*:6,audio*:6,alsa*:6,pipewire*:6 ?

If it's too big, compress it :)

[Philippe Normand]

Add pulse*:6 too please.

[Angelo Schirinzi]

Created attachment 470592 [details]
2nd gst.log

[Angelo Schirinzi]

Same issue with WebKitGTK 2.44.3 and GStreamer 1.24.7

[Philippe Normand]

(In reply to Philippe Normand from comment #4)
> What do you mean with low quality? Can you record the file, maybe with OBS
> or GNOME's screencast tool?
> 

^^^

[Angelo Schirinzi]

'Low quality' refers to audio. GNOME Screencast does not record audio.
It is very easy to reproduce as an issue: just run WhatsApp Web with WebKit (e.g. Epiphany) and record a voice message. The audio is crackly, as if it were overcompressed.

Both recording and playing voice messages in WhatsApp is problematic and often leads to freezes or crashes of the browser.

If you need more log files feel free to ask.

[Philippe Normand]

whatsapp login is broken, see bug 275890 ... So I can't work on this. Sorry!

[Angelo Schirinzi]

The issue you mentioned has been resolved now

[Angelo Schirinzi]

I tried WhatsApp on ZapZap (an application that uses QtWebEngine) and the problem still occurs. At this point I believe we can think that it's not a WebKit problem, but perhaps some other component like Pipewire. I wouldn't know.

[Philippe Normand]

Is this producing a low-quality file? 

gst-launch-1.0 -e autoaudiosrc ! audioconvert ! opusenc ! mp4mux ! queue ! filesink location=opus.mp4

Press ctrl-c after a while...

[Angelo Schirinzi]

(In reply to Philippe Normand from comment #17)
> Is this producing a low-quality file? 
> 
> gst-launch-1.0 -e autoaudiosrc ! audioconvert ! opusenc ! mp4mux ! queue !
> filesink location=opus.mp4
> 
> Press ctrl-c after a while...

Quality is perfect with this.

[Philippe Normand]

Works fine here in Canary...

[Philippe Normand]

OK I think I see what you mean, there's some clipping issue in the audio...