Google now won't let my app detect headset button long click

Question

I want my app to do some specific actions when user long clicks (press and hold) headset button. I use a BroadcastReceiver for MEDIA_BUTTON and it works fine in phones who doesn't run Google now app for sound actions for long press. But in the phones that automatically run Google now my app is just being ignored. How can I disable Google now and detect headset button long click. here is onReceive method in my BroadcastReceiver class.

public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
String intentAction = intent.getAction();
    if (!Intent.ACTION_MEDIA_BUTTON.equals(intentAction)) {
         return;
    }
    KeyEvent event = (KeyEvent) intent
            .getParcelableExtra(Intent.EXTRA_KEY_EVENT);
    if (event == null) {
        return;
    }
    int action = event.getAction();

    switch (event.getKeyCode()) {
    case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_HEADSETHOOK:
             /**
             * for long click
             */
            if (action == KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN) {

                if (!isDown) {
                    isDown = true;
                    handler.postDelayed(l, LONG_CLICK_DELAY);
                }

            }

            if (action == KeyEvent.ACTION_UP) {

                                     /**
                 * for long click
                 */
                if (isDown)
                    isDown = false;
             }
            break;
    }
    abortBroadcast();
}

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 06 '14 at 07:12

I think you can take control over long press with this bit of code in manifest. This will open up a dialog which lets you choose which app to use long press. It worked for me when phone is unlocked but it wont work when the phone is locked. It pops out dialog but it vanishes when you unlock the phone. Hope I can get some help with this.

Key is to open up "Activity" instead of implementing broadcast receiver.

   <activity 
            android:name="packagename.activityname"
              android:launchMode="singleInstance"
               android:showOnLockScreen="true">
             <intent-filter android:priority="2147483647">
                <action android:name="android.speech.action.WEB_SEARCH" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
            </intent-filter>
            <intent-filter android:priority="2147483647">
                <action android:name="android.speech.action.VOICE_SEARCH_HANDS_FREE" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
            </intent-filter>
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="com.sec.action.SVOICE" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

I have tested this on Kitkat. No idea what happens on previous versions.

Thanks @engico for your answer, I will try this as soon as I can. — Mehrdad, Oct 06 '14 at 11:10

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 16 '14 at 11:09

I believe that your efforts may be in vain due to this Android bug.

I assume that will override anything you attempt, or at best, start your app as well as Google Now....

I've only managed to get around this on rooted devices whilst I wait for Google to fix it sigh

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 10 '14 at 19:00

You can override onKeyDown and look for the KeyEvent.KEYCODE_HEADSETHOOK key to handle the case when your app is in the foreground.

As to the background, ordered broadcasts can be aborted by a receiver which will stop any other app from receiving the broadcast and I'm guessing that is what Google Play is doing. The only way to combat that is to set android:priority in your manifest to a suitably high value to come before Google Play and hope Google Play developers didn't choose Integer.MAX_VALUE.

Thanks for your answer. I want to handle headset button press in background so first one doesn't solve my problem. And I've already tried the second solution but it didn't work. — Mehrdad, Jan 11 '14 at 22:25

Google now won't let my app detect headset button long click

3 Answers3

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