If you have been following my articles, you must know how biased I am towards Android compared to the iPhone. I would still prefer Android as my default smartphone to the everyday iPhone. But today I prefer the iPhone and it is because of its compatibility with the different helmets that we have on the market.
The default EarPods that come with the phone have hardware keys using which you can not only answer calls, but also control music playback. It even accepts compatible headphones with hardware buttons, making it easy to shuffle songs without taking the phone out of pockets.
However, when it comes to Android, there are different OEMs and manufacturers and most of them don't have the option to use the headset buttons to shuffle songs. And those who have this feature, limit it to stock headphones and hardly compatible with other headphones. But this is Android we are talking about and from my experience I know there is always a solution.
For the problem in question, the name of the solution is Physical Button Music Control (PBMC). PBMC is an Xposed module that can be installed on rooted Android phones with the Xposed framework pre-installed.
PBMC is not a plug-and-play application and requires configuration before you can use it. But the great part is that the app can be completely customized to your needs. So let's see how the application works once we have installed and activated it in the Xposed application.
Note: The application was tested on a Sony Xperia Z (Android 4.4.4) with the Xposed framework. Two headphones tested were the Motorola headphones (with one button) and the Monster DLNA headphones (three buttons) and it worked all the time. There were no compatibility issues.
After opening the app, tap Add Mapping to map a hardware key to a set of actions. After pressing the option, the app will detect any hard key press and once you confirm, it will add it as a mapping. If you want to configure the keys on your headset, plug it in and press the key there. Just make sure you don't select the power button. It makes no sense, believe me.
Now under the current key mapping, tap on each of the button names and you will see a list of actions you can perform on those buttons. Actions can be single press, double press, long press. Tap one of these actions you want to use and make the selection you want. Remember that you are not changing the obvious actions such as the volume button. The first priority should always be to increase or decrease the volume.
You can add a mapping for each of the hardware buttons you have on your phone and headphones, just remember the task assigned to each of them. If you dig deeper, you can even launch and take a photo from your camera. He is there if you are looking for him. But if you give up, comment and we will help you.
The next great thing about the app is that it works on all media player apps, even those that stream music like Spotify and Saavn. Tap Settings and select Signal Receiver then tap the app where you listen to your music. The app searches for all apps capable of playing media on your device and sends the signal to the particular Android activity.
The easiest way here would be to play songs on your default player and select the Use the last used media player option.
This is how you can control media playback on your Android using the hardware buttons on any headset. If you are using a Bluetooth headset without buttons, you can use the phone's hardware buttons. The only thing I like about the app is that even though you have a button on your headphones (like the ones provided by Motorola) you can assign up to 7 actions to it, which is more than enough to everyone.
Try the app, whether you are a music lover or not, I'm sure you'll like it. Just imagine skipping songs right from a single button you have on your earbud. Priceless!
