Possible to skip track from an Android application?

Question

I'm planning on doing a application for Android 2.1 that changes song every minute (through what I hope exists in Android, "next") for the application using the audio device atm.

So if I have Spotify running in background already, playing music, can I through my program change to the next track?

Let me know if I was unclear about anything. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

There's no universal audio transport API for music applications, so you'd need to see if the music applications you're targeting publicly expose service bindings or intents. If not, you won't be able to do this.

Answer 2

I know this is a bit old question, but it took me some time searching something other then what is mentioned here.

There is a workaround - broadcasting media button action. There is one catch - receiver can recognize if the broadcast was from system or from another app, so they can ignore the non-system broadcasts.

Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MEDIA_BUTTON);
synchronized (this) {
            i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_KEY_EVENT, new KeyEvent(KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN, KeyEvent.KEYCODE_MEDIA_NEXT));
            sendOrderedBroadcast(i, null);

            i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_KEY_EVENT, new KeyEvent(KeyEvent.ACTION_UP, KeyEvent.KEYCODE_MEDIA_NEXT));
            sendOrderedBroadcast(i, null);
 }

Answer 3

Just posted a relevant answer here

Using the AudioManager's dispatchMediaKeyEvent() method with a defined KeyEvent worked for me using the latest SDK.

Answer 4

The system music homescreen widget sends this intent for the built-in music player:

    final ComponentName serviceName = new ComponentName(context, 
        MediaPlaybackService.class);
    intent = new Intent(MediaPlaybackService.NEXT_ACTION);
    intent.setComponent(serviceName);
    pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getService(context,
            0 /* no requestCode */, intent, 0 /* no flags */);
    views.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.control_next, pendingIntent);

But it looks like this might take some hackery to implement outside packages in the music app itself because the MediaPlaybackService only accepts explicit Intents and isn't accessible from the outside. This thread seems to indicate it's possible with a bit of hackery, though.

But even then, as Roman said, not every music player will respect that Intent. You'll have to check with Spotify/Pandora/Last.fm themselves and see if they have any available intents to bind like that.

Answer 5

Looks that it's possible to use AudioManager to inject media keys.

Here is a snippet from another question

this.mAudioManager = (AudioManager) this.context.getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);

long eventtime = SystemClock.uptimeMillis();

KeyEvent downEvent = new KeyEvent(eventtime, eventtime, KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN, KeyEvent.KEYCODE_MEDIA_NEXT, 0);
mAudioManager.dispatchMediaKeyEvent(downEvent);

KeyEvent upEvent = new KeyEvent(eventtime, eventtime, KeyEvent.ACTION_UP, KeyEvent.KEYCODE_MEDIA_NEXT, 0);
mAudioManager.dispatchMediaKeyEvent(upEvent);

The same way you can inject PlayPause button and some others. I've tested it within a background service controlling Youtube and it worked for Android 6