Check if Android correctly handles play/pause for BT devices

[mchowning]

User report:

I have a 2019 audi e-tron where I use android auto to play pocketcasts.

When I use youtube music, I'm able to pause and unpause the music with the steering wheel button. However, with pocketcasts, I can only pause it. It does not resume playing when I press the button again on the steering wheel; I have to resume playback by pressing a button on the screen.

Russell stated:

I suspect what's happening here is that the button on the steering wheel always sends a pause event. On iOS we handle this like so:

commandCenter.playCommand.addTarget { [weak self] _ -> MPRemoteCommandHandlerStatus in
    guard let strongSelf = self, let _ = strongSelf.currentEpisode() else { return .noActionableNowPlayingItem }

    if Settings.legacyBluetoothModeEnabled() {
        FileLog.shared.addMessage("Remote control: playCommand, treating as play (Legacy BT Mode is on)")
        if !strongSelf.playing() { strongSelf.play() }
    }
    else if let lastPlayTime = UserDefaults.standard.object(forKey: Constants.UserDefaults.lastPlayEvent) as? Date, fabs(lastPlayTime.timeIntervalSinceNow) < 10.seconds {
        // iOS will sometimes issue two remotePlay commands, so if it's been less than 10 seconds since the last one, just play don't try to playPause
        FileLog.shared.addMessage("Remote control: playCommand, treating as play")
        if !strongSelf.playing() { strongSelf.play() }
    }
    else {
        if strongSelf.playingOverAirplay() {
            // during handoff iOS will call us to play even if we already are, so honour that here
            FileLog.shared.addMessage("Remote control: playCommand, treating as play because playing over AirPlay")
            if !strongSelf.playing() { strongSelf.play() }
        }
        else {
            // we hook play up to play/pause because that's how some headphones/car stereos do it instead of sending distinct play/pause events
            FileLog.shared.addMessage("Remote control: playCommand, treating as playPause")
            strongSelf.playPause()
        }
    }

I realise this is for the play command on iOS, but it might be worth checking the Android app to see if it doesn't something similar to handle this case?

[joashrajin]

I noticed in my Mazda CX-30 using Android Auto that PocketCasts treats the unmute command differently than other audio apps. It seems if I mute then unmute it will pause then resume. But if I wait a bit and then unmute, it will ignore the unmute request. There is no way to get the podcast going again from the car media buttons, I have to hit play in the Android Auto UI. This is different to how both Google Podcasts and Spotify handle the same button. Where unmute maybe 5 mins after muting will resume what I was listening to. A use case for this would be navigating some busy intersections where I want to pause the show to focus, and then unpause the show when I’m back crusing.

7524229-zd-a8c

[joashrajin]

6533688-zd-a8c

[thabotswana]

Another report here: https://forums.pocketcasts.com/forums/topic/android-auto-pocketcasts-treats-unmute-differently-to-other-audio-apps/?view=all#post-4222

[dericleeyy]

some debug logs are provided in 8368631-zd-a8c