onplay() still called after playback error

[Xythus]

I'm trying to make a web app that's supposed to load and play back audio files from local storage. Because of this requirement I (sadly) can't use the Web Audio API. When the application has loaded I want to attempt an audio playback before the user has given any input, so that devices that do not have this limitation start playing back audio right away. I was planning on using the onplay() listener to set a boolean (audioStarted) to true on the first successful audio playback.

When including html5: true in the Howl options and attempting to play back the file straight away I get the following error as expected:
Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: play() can only be initiated by a user gesture.

However, the onplay() function is still called despite the unsuccessful audio playback, thus incorrectly setting the audioStarted boolean. Is this intended behavior?