External Control on SFOS 4.2 broken

[KappaAlphaOmega]

Since updating to SailfishOS 4.2.0.21 (Verla), external control via wired headphones play/pause button (Sony) only work when Talefish is the active foreground app. The button gets ignored as soon as I switch to homescreen or another app. It used to work on the previous 4.1 OS. I read in the release notes that something about MPRIS changed with 4.2, which might cause the issue.

Talefish 7.1 Sony Xperia 10 II Wired Sony headphones (single button)

[jgibbon]

Hi, thanks for reporting this issue. SFOS 4.2 seems to handle the play pause button on its own and will break as soon as I try to request the permission for it. That's a pity, since it means the custom functionality like long press or doing something different than play/pause won't ever work again.

Please be so kind and test the newest pre-release build here on github. It would be great if you could tell me if it works again with the custom functionality removed… https://github.com/jgibbon/Talefish/releases/tag/pre-0.8-1

cheers!

[KappaAlphaOmega]

Hi, thanks for the quick response!

I tested the pre-release pre-0.8-1 aarch64, and I can happily confirm that external controls work again after switching to homescreen or another app. Yay!

Besides play/pause on single press, Talefish also skips ahead on double press, and skips back on triple press - like the Jolla Media app. However, Talefish also honours the external control setting, i.e. skip forward/back a track, short duration or long duration as selected. Unfortunately the selection menu itself is BROKEN in the pre-release, I can open the three choices list but then cannot select a different one. But it remembers the selection from the previous release version, so I was able to change it by juggling versions.

All in all, the new 4.2 behavior is something I can live with, though I did prefer the more convenient long-press to skip back 10s. On that note, any chance you can swap double and triple press, so double skips back and triple forward? I find myself much more frequently doing "wait, what was that?" and skipping back, while only rarely doing "boring, know that already" and skipping forward. So it makes more sense, UX wise, to have skip back on the easier trigger. (The default seems to be geared towards music playlists, where it is more common to skip ahead one track.)

Whatever you end up doing, I am looking forward to the next real release. Talefish is by far my favourite and most used SFOS app. Thank you for all your hard work so far, much appreciated!

Cheers!

Am Samstag, 18. September 2021 schrieb jgibbon:

Hi, thanks for reporting this issue. SFOS 4.2 seems to handle the play pause button on its own and will break as soon as I try to request the permission for it. That's a pity, since it means the custom functionality like long press or doing something different than play/pause won't ever work again.

Please be so kind and test the newest pre-release build here on github. It would be great if you could tell me if it works again with the custom functionality removed… https://github.com/jgibbon/Talefish/releases/tag/pre-0.8-1

cheers!

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[jgibbon]

Hi – thanks for testing. I'll reopen this. Obviously I didn't test enough and only assumed the other actions wouldn't work anymore, as well. So I hid the settings for SFOS 4.2+. I'll investigate further before the next stable release and hope there'll be a satisfactory solution without completely deactivating all those features for SFOS 4.2+..

cheers!

[jgibbon]

Hi, I do have a quick follow-up question, because you wrote

However, Talefish also honours the external control setting, i.e. skip forward/back a track, short duration or long duration as selected.

In my tests after the changes, it didn't, just like I expected – could you re-test for me?

On that note, any chance you can swap double and triple press, so double skips back and triple forward? I find myself much more frequently doing "wait, what was that?" and skipping back, while only rarely doing "boring, know that already" and skipping forward.

I wholeheartedly agree with that, though it's sadly handled outside of my control now. It seems to be inside QML, so it may be possible to create a patch for that and swap like two lines. (I won't do that, because while I'm a fan of patches I'm no a fan of creating them. ;) )

cheers!

[KappaAlphaOmega]

Am Sonntag, 19. September 2021 schrieb jgibbon:

Hi, I do have a quick follow-up question, because you wrote

However, Talefish also honours the external control setting, i.e. skip forward/back a track, short duration or long duration as selected.

In my tests after the changes, it didn't, just like I expected – could you re-test for me?

I did some more testing with skipping forward/back by double/triple press:

1) Sony Headphones MDR-EX659AP (wired) - skipping works 2) Old Apple InEar Headphones (wired) - skipping works 3) SoundBuds Flow (Bluetooth) - NO skipping, only play/pause

So it depends either on the particular model, or on wired vs. Bluetooth. Sadly I don't have any other BT devices for comparison. What did you use in your tests?

On that note, any chance you can swap double and triple press, so double skips back and triple forward? I find myself much more frequently doing "wait, what was that?" and skipping back, while only rarely doing "boring, know that already" and skipping forward.

I wholeheartedly agree with that, though it's sadly handled outside of my control now. It seems to be inside QML, so it may be possible to create a patch for that and swap like two lines. (I won't do that, because while I'm a fan of patches I'm no a fan of creating them. ;) )

I never tried patching QML, but will keep it in mind if it annoys me too much.

Thanks for your continued efforts!