Reliably Pausing Media Playback System-Wide in Android

Question

The title makes this sound much simpler than it is.. I\'m trying to broadcast an intent that will pause most music players.

I know I can use create a KeyEvent for th

Answer 1

To pause system wide audio, you don't start an intent but rather request audio focus from the system.

So when you wish to pause everything do the following (suggested in onCreate):

//The Variables we'll need to create
AudioManager am;
OnAudioFocusChangeListener af;

//I do nothing with this listener, but it's required for the next step.
af = new OnAudioFocusChangeListener() {

      public void onAudioFocusChange(int focusChange) {
          if (focusChange == AudioManager.AUDIOFOCUS_LOSS_TRANSIENT_CAN_DUCK) {
              // Lower the volume
          } else if (focusChange == AudioManager.AUDIOFOCUS_GAIN) {
              // Raise it back to normal
          }    
      }

}; 

//Do the actual pause
am = (AudioManager)getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);
int request = am.requestAudioFocus(af,
    AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC,
    AudioManager.AUDIOFOCUS_GAIN);

But don't forget to let go of focus using:

am.abandonAudioFocus(af);

Answer 2

I ran across this as well. Thanks to your description of it, I think i understand what's going on. You send the keydown event, but never the keyup so to the system thinks the play/pause button is being continuously pressed. I used this piece of code successfully.

Intent mediaEvent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MEDIA_BUTTON);
KeyEvent event = new KeyEvent(KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN, KeyEvent.KEYCODE_MEDIA_PLAY); 
mediaEvent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_KEY_EVENT, event);
context.sendBroadcast(mediaEvent);

new Timer().schedule(new TimerTask() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        Intent mediaEvent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MEDIA_BUTTON);
        KeyEvent event = new KeyEvent(KeyEvent.ACTION_UP,KeyEvent.KEYCODE_MEDIA_PLAY); 
        mediaEvent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_KEY_EVENT, event);
        context.sendBroadcast(mediaEvent);
    }
}, 100);