I recently discovered what a treat it is to play audiobooks while I drive.
And allegedly, my G2 and Acura TL Bluetooth Audio (2011 Acura TL w/ Tech package) makes that a snap, right?
Well, here's my experience.
1. I turn on my Android phone's Bluetooth (T-Mobile G2) and get in the car. The car immediately recognizes the phone. Great!
2. As soon as I switch the car's radio/audio button over to Bluetooth audio, my phone instantly pulls up an MP3 player and begins playing a song.
3. But I don't want a song! In fact, there seems to be nothing I can do to stop my Acura from ordering my Android to play something every single time I switch the radio to Bluetooth audio. Or is the phone itself that wants to automatically play something? Who knows. It's annoying. I thought maybe the problem was an app, because it was always DoubleTwist that would automatically start playing. So I deleted DoubleTwist. Now it's WinAmp that starts playing. So it must be something about the phone interacting with the car. For whatever reason, I now have to dial the Acura Bluetooth menu over to Pause/Resume to stop it.
4. Finally--after all that--I can pull up my audiobook player and start to listen via Bluetooth audio. Bliss.
5. Oops, there's my phone ringing, which my Acura Bluetooth phone function quickly answers. It's my wife.
Wife: "Hi, I just wanted to see if you're driving your car."
Me: "Why, yes. Yes, I am driving my car. Thanks so much for asking."
Wife: "OK, goodbye!"
Me: "Goodbye. Thanks so much for calling."
6. When the phone hangs up, ALL Bluetooth audio ceases. I think the connection remains, because any player app I have will show the seconds ticking off if you ask it play something, but you can't hear anything, neither on the phone speaker nor on the car audio. It's as if the phone is transmitting it to the car but the car has its Bluetooth audio turned completely down? Who knows? But it's a bummer.
7. No button-pushing on the car seems to fix things, so I turn the Bluetooth radio on my phone off, then on.
8. Now, we're all reset. Whoops! There's that annoying song again. Got to turn that off. Then back to the audiobook player. Then back to the book.
9. Five more minutes of bliss until the next call.
10. I dunno. Shouldn't this be easier? Hopefully, I've pulled off the road several times while all this was going on. If I try to deal with it while I'm driving I'm certain to wrap my car around a telephone pole, which is embarrasing no matter who you are.
I'll probably have to cross-post this to both the Acura genius's board and the G2 genius's board since I'm not sure where the issue lies. Let me know if you have any clues.
Thank you!
Okay! I got a little schooled by the Acura guys. I really shouldn't consider it a bug that something starts playing on my phone when I click the car radio dial to Bluetooth Audio. That would be like expecting the FM receiver to stay silent until I've selected a channel. As soon as I select Bluetooth Audio, it sends out the Bluetooth Play command and away my G2 goes. Not a bug. Feature. Got it.
Here's the part where I need Android geniuses to weigh in.
I use the Ambling Bookplayer app. For some reason, even if Ambling is already playing when I select Bluetooth Audio on my radio, my phone will still launch a standard media player (such as DoubleTwist or WinAmp) and begin playing a music .MP3.
At that point then, I have both the audiobook .MP3 and the music .MP3 playing through my car's Bluetooth Audio.
What is behind that behavior?
The only thing I can think of that might be a clue is I've noticed that the same media player always launches despite the fact that I have several on my phone.
For example, it was always DoubleTwist. I deleted that app while troubleshooting this problem and now it's always WinAmp. I wonder if there's some kind of hierarchy in determining which player responds to the car's "Bluetooth Play" command? If I had a music .MP3 playing on the stock music player, would the car still launch WinAmp?
And if there's a way to determine who goes first, can I figure out how to make it the Ambling player?
Anyone who has some insight into the relationship between Bluetooth and Android or G2 media players, I'd certainly appreciate some input.
Thank you!
Closer...
So it occurred to me that since my car is always asking for the same player, there may be a "default player" setting somewhere I can change. Perhaps it's the "default .MP3 player"? I discover that the audiobook player I've been using isn't even listed in the menu of available media apps that appears when you click an .MP3 file.
So I downloaded about every audiobook player app and it turns only ONE of them does (MortPlayer Audiobook).
So I click the box to make this the default player whenever an .MP3 file is selected. Maybe that'll work.
I go back to the car and select Bluetooth Audio. Nuts. WinAmp again.
So that suggest to me that the default player setting I'm looking for is a Bluetooth default media player? Is that the answer I've been looking for? Is there such a setting? If so, how do I change that?
I've worked through most of the problems above, but I'm bumping this because of one unresolved question:
Doesn't anyone here know exactly how the G2 responds when it receives a "bluetooth play" command?
That is, why does it select the player it selects and is that something we can modify?
Thanks for all enlightenment!
Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) is not working on any app. i tried it with my headphones to play/pause and skip a song and nothing. same thing on my car. so its definitely the phone causing the problem. anyone else?
Same here - tried two different devices. No play / pause.
OK, it looks like Google Music has a strangle hold on AVRCP. It works in that app (which I don't use) and nowhere else.
This is one of the reasons I ditched Google Music on my last device. The minute you install it, no other app works with AVRCP.
I tried disabling it in Applications (I am running stock w/o unlock or root ATM), but that does no good. Also tried re-enabling and FC, but again, no joy.
Hopefully someone more skilled that I has a suggestion...
EDIT - there don't appear to be any settings in Google Music to turn off their control. Tried a couple apps in the market like Headset Interceptor, but they did not help.
no google music isnt the problem. it doesnt work on any app. plus on my old phone google music didnt cause any problems and worked just fine.
qman66 said:
no google music isnt the problem. it doesnt work on any app. plus on my old phone google music didnt cause any problems and worked just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... I guess we have two different problems.
On my GNEX, AVRCP (I only care about playing and pausing via BT) works on Google Music, and nothing else.
On my old DINC, I had AVRCP working until I installed Google Music (only change I made), at which point all my other apps' AVRCP capabilities stopped working (Audible, Subsonic, etc.). I then uninstalled Google Music (again, the only change I made), and my AVRCP started working again.
To me, that experience makes it pretty clear that Google Music was causing me grief on my old device, and is mysteriously the only thing that works with this feature on my new device.
Like I said, maybe you have something else going on.
so noone else has this problem?
Try Power Amp
The Power Amp player seems to work on my Senheisser MM450 BT Headphones
I have the same issue.
AVRCP on my bluetooth headset (Plantronics BackBeat 903+) stopped working when I started using Galaxy Nexus.
On my old phone I was using BeyondPod and Player Pro with my headset and play/pause worked from the headset. Now, I cannot stop or play music in those apps.
I can confirm that this has something to do with Google Music.
I found that if I start Google Music then AVRCP works with the headset. If then I go and start Player Pro, the AVRCP stops working, and pushing play/pause button does nothing. Then, when I go back to Goolge Music, everything works fine once again.
So existence of Google Music somehow hampers the ability of other apps to claim bluetooth headset remote control fully. They claim it partially, because Google Music is not starting music on pushing play button, but the player does not start music as well.
Spotify on Nexus S stopped responding to BT Play/Pause after ICS update
I am encountering the same issue after updating my Nexus S to Ice Cream Sandwich via an OTA update.
Using Seinnheser MM450s, I was previously able to fully control Spotify (Play/Pause/Next/Previous). However since updating to ICS, only Next/Previous work. The main button (Play/Pause) has no effect.
However, when I launch the factory Music app, it responds to all controls.
To try and 'debug' the issue, I downloaded a trial of "Headset Droid" app, and used its BlueTooth command monitor debugging facility. As expected, it correctly intercepted and confirmed the Next/Previous button pushes, however failed to acknowledge the Play/Pause functionality.
Has a bug report been filed regarding this issue? Can anyone suggest a workaround?
Thanks - Anj
I have the same issue. Previously - my Nexus One running stock/unrooted 2.3.6 worked perfectly for play/pause/next/previous/start|end call on cheap Chinese Bluetooth headphones. Been using them for weeks with Subsonic, flawlessly.
Moved to Galaxy Nexus, 4.0.1 (apparently .2 hasn't rolled for my geography yet) - same headphones, only next/previous/start|end call work. Play/Pause does nothing in either state, whether I am in Subsonic or not. Haven't tried Music yet as I never use it (lets face it, its of limited value outside the US!).
But I did notice that if I press and hold for quite a while, the play/pause button, it seems to stop the music in some way that isn't quite pause, but nothing else works after that, you have to manually restart it from the app.
(anecdotally, I have the unsubstantiated feeling that some/all system sounds are not piped to the headphones as effectively as Gingerbread. But I haven't tested this yet)
Finally, I note I have occasionally used these headphones on my Honeycomb tablet - Asus Transformer, 3.2.1(?) and it behaves the same as the Nexus One, not the Galaxy Nexus so this is definitely an ICS issue.
I have reported this fault on code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=23172 - please add to the comments so that it gathers momentum as an important issue.
I hate to post a me-too, but me too :-(
I'm using doggcatcher on a rooted verizon galaxy nexus on the stock 4.0.2 firmware. My headphones are a sony MW600. Play/pause/ffw/rew don't work in doggcatcher.
I started up google music and went through the setup wizard. the AVRCP buttons work for google music only. Enabling/disabling doggcatcher's "bind to headset forcefully" option has no effect.
I used Titanium Backup to make a backup of Google Music, and then uninstall it. Now Doggcatcher responds to AVRCP button-presses. Anyone else want to give it a try?
Thanks daoist,
Can you confirm that you have to be root to use that particular functionality of Titanium Backup?
Thanks again - Anj
Interesting. Now it seems like google music and Pandora both respond to it. But google listen does not.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I'm having the same issues with my Galaxy Nexus as well. I starred the link mentioned above. I'm using a Plantronics Voyager Pro HD and none of my music controls work. I also can't tap the call button to engage a voice search or anything. I hope Google fixes this sometime soon...This makes my headset quite a bit less useful...
I can confirm the issue on my Gnex LTE running 4.0.2. Google Music works fine. I don't know why, but Doggcatcher is also working fine (Play/Pause works). I noticed that there is a setting in Doggcatcher for "bind to headset" and "start application" - both of which are checked on mine, so maybe that's why it's working.
However, both Pandora and Mog are not working with Play/Pause and there are no headset options in the app settings. So either 1) apps just need to be updated for ICS, or 2) something is amiss in ICS that prevents other apps from using the headset controls. Most likely the latter...
Apparently the developers of Media Button Router have "fixed" this issue.
See here: code.google.com/p/media-button-router/issues/detail?id=10#c5
Download from here: market.android.com/details?id=com.harleensahni.android.mbr&hl=en
I can confirm that after installing Media Button Router and configuring to send all BT commands to Spotify - I no longer have the Play/Pause problem.
Thanks - Anj
qman66 said:
Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) is not working on any app. i tried it with my headphones to play/pause and skip a song and nothing. same thing on my car. so its definitely the phone causing the problem. anyone else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use beyondpod for podcasts - and avrcp works fine.. worth mentioning that I'm not using google music.
-m
anj747 said:
Apparently the developers of Media Button Router have "fixed" this issue.
See here: code.google.com/p/media-button-router/issues/detail?id=10#c5
Download from here: market.android.com/details?id=com.harleensahni.android.mbr&hl=en
I can confirm that after installing Media Button Router and configuring to send all BT commands to Spotify - I no longer have the Play/Pause problem.
Thanks - Anj
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that works but EVERY time i hit the play/pause button on my mw600 the prompt comes up, freaking annoying, can we have the app that just does the play pause, i dont wnat it to come up asking me what to play pause.
Sorry to revive but i've got an in-car bluetooth and the AVRCP doesn't seem to work with ICS either.. the first time I click play and the first time I click "next track" on the car after the phone connects, the phone will respond correctly, but will not respond to any subsequent buttons until I press the power button on my phone... It's almost like ICS is sitting on all the commands sent to it's AVRCP like a stack, and when I power the phone (either on or into standby), the next click is executed (without any clicks on the car at the time)..
eg: if I hit "Next" twice and "Rew" once on my car, then every time I tap the power button (between on and sleep), it would execute Next, Next and Rew in that order. I have a lock pattern on my phone too, not sure if that's hampering the AVRCP commands either... only way to get out of this is to turn the BT off on the GNEX then on again.. but it does the same thing after the first succesful AVRCP command again.
Hi Everyone
I'm having issues with Google Voice Recognition. If I have headphones plugged in and I toggle voice recognition from the soft keyboard (the little mic icon) the media player I have running in the background cuts out. It stays out even after voice recognition has finished listening.
If I toggle voice recognition into listening mode again, the media audio cuts back in until voice recognition stops listening, then it cuts back out. Even apps like Utter! cause this same exact behavior. It seems to be when one of these apps forces the audio to focus on something else. This issue doesn't happen at all if I *don't* have anything plugged into the headphone jack. It works like normal in those cases.
Restarting the media player doesn't fix it. The only ways to fix it are to totally restart the phone, or unplug the headphones, toggle voice recognition, wait for it to stop listening, then plug the headphones back in. Then it all works correctly until the next time voice recognition is toggled. Then the problem happens all over again.
I'm running Beanstalk 4.3 RC1.1 + W03Tweaks v1.6.1 with uneak kernel 2.22. I've tried switching to a different kernel (devil) but I get the same results. I've noticed this problem on both 4.2 and 4.3 rom's for me (Both Beanstalk, haven't tested other roms).
It's driving me crazy since I can't use voice recognition when I'm driving without causing my music to stop. I made a video of what it's doing, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFm-Hk0TADw.
I recently upgraded from an S5 to my G4. I really miss Samsung's car-mode. I have tried using the LG voice, but its not the same. Any advice on a good car-mode app? What i want to do is listed below.
1. Read out text messages and be able to speak a reply.
2. Play music, with the ability to skip to next song, or back one song, pause music or shuffle tunes.
3. Make phone calls either through Bluetooth or through my car speakers.
4. Navigation, activated by voice, but not really needed.
Thanks guys.
Whenever I get in my car and my bluetooth connects, google play music just starts playing whatever was last on on Google Music App. I'm a spotify user and would like to change the default from Google to Spotify. I can't seem to find a way to stop Google music from playing by default. It's very annoying. Works great if you use Google music, but otherwise, annoying.
Anyone having this issue? Anyone have a fix?
AFAIK there isn't a way to prevent media autoplay when connecting to (certain?) car stereos.
Interestingly enough, I don't think that the behavior is actually specific to GPM. I usually listen to podcasts in the car rather than music, and as long as the phone hasn't rebooted or GPM hasn't been used since Pocket Casts was playing, my podcast resumes when I get back in the car usually even if the notification has been closed. It may be the the Spotify app is missing some hook that allows it to take advantage of this feature, but I don't believe we have any way of affecting it directly.
BRO. This **** happened to me for like a week straight and I was getting pretty angry. I made the mistake of asking Google Assistant to play a song for me ONCE and every time I connected to a bluetooth device (usually my car) it started playing the song from where it left off. I don't know what I did to make it stop to be honest, so I'm not much of a help but I can confirm this is a very annoying issue.
I did NOT, however, uninstall Google Music, Disable it, or touch the app in any capacity. There's no option to prevent it from autoplaying, either. I might've let the song play out, but I'm afraid to open the app again to take a look.