How to disable media Queue button in Android Auto when playing live stream.

[Guardiannw]

Question:

Under the previous version of the media library, when playing a live stream (HLS) for a radio station, the Queue button did not appear in Android Auto when playing a media item. However, after migrating to the new Media3 library, the Queue seems to be there by default. I have tried to look through the documentation, but cannot find a way to easily disable the Queue button on Android Auto. I assume it has something to do with the new implementation because it was not there for us on the old implementation. Is there any way that I can easily disable the viewing of the queue in Android Auto via the library.

[Guardiannw]

Thanks @marcbaechinger for responding. I have just tried your suggestions, but unfortunately, the queue button is still there. I have also tried removing these commands in the onConnect method of the MediaLibrarySession.Callback, but the issue still persists.

[marcbaechinger]

Ok, thanks! Will investigate.

[marcbaechinger]

The criteria is whether the queue is empty or not.

With Media3, the queue of the legacy session is a function of the media items added to the player. So if there is a media item playing, then the queue is never empty.

This is a regression compared to what apps can do with the legacy MediaSessionCompat API. I think we need to fix this.

I changed this issue to a bug and will update this issue when we have news.

[Guardiannw]

Thanks so much for looking into this!

[DenysLoboda]

@marcbaechinger do we have some option to override MediaSession::onTimelineChanged? Or perhaps there is some other workaround?

[DenysLoboda]

In fact, when using the support library, this behavior is also observed. I managed to get the playlist off by overriding MediaMetadataProvider and assuming QueueNavigator is not set. Are there any equivalents for this for media3?

[marcbaechinger]

With the commit above that landed in the main branch and will be released with 1.2.0, an app can now remove the queue button in Android Auto/Automotive OS by removing COMMNAD_GET_TIMELINE:

override fun onConnect(
  session: MediaSession,
  controller: MediaSession.ControllerInfo
): MediaSession.ConnectionResult {
  if (session.isMediaNotificationController(controller)) {
    val playerCommands =
      Player.Commands.Builder().addAllCommands().remove(COMMAND_GET_TIMELINE).build()
    return MediaSession.ConnectionResult.AcceptedResultBuilder(session)
      .setAvailablePlayerCommands(playerCommands)
      .build()
  }
}

With this the queue is not set on the framework session and the button is not displayed y Auto.

An app can change this setting during runtime like for instance when the user adds a playlist instead a radio stream and an app want to alternate between the two behaviors:

session.mediaNotificationControllerInfo?.let {
  val playerCommands = Player.Commands.Builder().addAllCommands()
  val sessionCommands = getSessionCommandsIncludingCustomCommands() // provided by app
  session.setAvailableCommands(it, sessionCommands, playerCommands)
}

An app can do this even when the app wants to support the System UI notification in parallel. COMMAND_GET_TIMELINE is not required for supporting the System UI media notification.

[marcbaechinger]

@Guardiannw Sorry for the wait and thanks for your report!

@DenysLoboda

when using the support library, this behavior is also observed.
Are there any equivalents for this for media3?

You can remove COMMAND_GET_TIMELINE as explained above.

do we have some option to override MediaSession::onTimelineChanged?

Na, there is no such method. I think with the option added now, you can now do what you want by API.

I'm closing as the question is answered and we now have an API for this. Please open a new issue in case you find issues with the provided solution.