Enthusiast II

Question

Will we get our Android widget back?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
July 19, 2024
31 replies
4837 views

Title.

Also the ability to see/control music from the notification area and lock screen.

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F

furacaopr

Prodigy III

@Corry P, could you let us know if it's on the backlog, pls?

Android Widget
Android Media Control

E

edmountain

Prodigy I

It’s highly likely that Sonos was using some kind of backdoor or other ungodly hack to get the lock screen widget “working” because it was always accompanied by the annoying message “Stopping the service may interrupt playback notifications”. The widget was also poorly responsive to inputs. Basically, it was a mess.

Given that, I’m not surprised to see the widget go away with the new app and I would be very surprised to see it ever come back.

buzz

I think @Buzz may have misspoke a bit by referring to the Sonos app as a player. It’s not a player, it’s a controller.. When using app app like Spotify or other streaming audio service, the audio is playing on the device itself, and the device allows for device volume controls. Even if it’s bluetooth or airplay to another device, the audio is still originating from the device. Sonos volume controls are for controlling volume on other Sonos speakers where the audio originates on the other device. It’s a signficant difference.

.

That’s correct, my wording was unfortunate.

If you are using the phone/pad App to play music on the SONOS system via Bluetooth or Airplay, the buttons are available to the App because the App is playing the music on the phone/pad.

A few Apps, such as SPOTIFY, in addition to playing on the phone/pad, can use the SONOS API (Application Program Interface) interact with the SONOS players. This keeps Apple and Google happy because the phone/pad controls are not directly interacting with the SONOS hardware.

RudieAuthor

Enthusiast II

I never had a problem with widget responsiveness.

I used to use it dozens of times a day, every day.

F

furacaopr

Prodigy III

It’s highly likely that Sonos was using some kind of backdoor or other ungodly hack to get the lock screen widget “working” .

It's not a backdoor. It's a well documented Android function:

Media controls in Android are located near the Quick Settings. Sessions from multiple apps are arranged in a swipeable carousel. The carousel lists sessions in this order:

Streams playing locally on the phone
Remote streams, such as those detected on external devices or cast sessions
Previous resumable sessions, in the order they were last played

F

furacaopr

Prodigy III

This keeps Apple and Google happy because the phone/pad controls are not directly interacting with the SONOS hardware.

I know that Apple has issues with that. But, Google / Android allows the physical buttons to interact with Sonos devices.

sigh

Prodigy II

It’s highly likely that Sonos was using some kind of backdoor or other ungodly hack to get the lock screen widget “working” .

It's not a backdoor. It's a well documented Android function:

Media controls in Android are located near the Quick Settings. Sessions from multiple apps are arranged in a swipeable carousel. The carousel lists sessions in this order:

Streams playing locally on the phone
Remote streams, such as those detected on external devices or cast sessions
Previous resumable sessions, in the order they were last played

I think there are two different scenarios here.

A widget can have a media session on screen controls to change streams both locally and/or remote which is what your quote from the Android docs is referring to.

An active foreground app can use the hard buttons for control.

A background app, which it would be on a Lock Screen, cannot use the hardware buttons for control.

Not responding to the hardware buttons when the app is not active in the foreground is a requirement of Android introduced in one of the sdk versions. 12 maybe. This affects all device makers not just Sonos.

If an app isn’t in the foreground or the phone is locked and there are multiple apps which can respond to the hardware controls which one wins without confusing users? Sonos, Spotify, Tidal, the incoming call volume, Bluesound, etc… Should they all react? Should Sonos override everything including an incoming call ringing?