Kaitlyn Cimino / Android AuthorityTL;DR
Android 15 permits watch companion apps to control the media output of different apps.
This could let customers change the machine their cellphone is outputting audio to proper from their watch.
Google could introduce this function to the Pixel Watch in a future replace, however we don’t know if or when that’ll occur.
One good thing about pairing your Android cellphone to a smartwatch working Google’s Wear OS platform is which you can control your cellphone’s media playback proper from your wrist. I exploit this performance on a regular basis once I need to play or pause a video on my TV whereas I’m making meals or once I need to change tracks in an album on my good show whereas I’m working. Sadly, one button that the Wear OS media participant is lacking when it’s displaying media controls for your cellphone is a media output switcher. This means if you wish to change the machine your cellphone is outputting audio to, it is advisable to decide up your cellphone. That could change within the upcoming Android 15 replace, nonetheless.When you go to pair an Android cellphone to a smartwatch working Wear OS, you usually must arrange a companion app on your cellphone. This companion app often not solely helps you to change varied choices on your watch from the consolation of your cellphone’s bigger display screen but additionally syncs essential knowledge from your cellphone like its notifications, cellphone calls, textual content messages, and extra. Before it may acquire and ship this knowledge, although, the companion app must request quite a lot of delicate permissions on your cellphone.Instead of asking the person to grant every permission individually, the companion app can make the most of Android’s Companion Device Profile function to request entry to those essential permissions in a single go. The companion machine profile for smartwatches android.app.position.COMPANION_DEVICE_WATCH, for instance, grants the companion app permissions associated to calendar entry, cellphone name entry, SMS entry, contacts entry, close by machine scanning, and extra.Mishaal Rahman / Android AuthorityDialog requesting permissions for the watch machine profile. Source: Google.Starting in Android 15, companion apps that concentrate on Android 15 and request to turn out to be the watch machine profile holder will be granted a brand new platform permission named MEDIA_ROUTING_CONTROL.Mishaal Rahman / Android AuthorityThe MEDIA_ROUTING_CONTROL permission permits the companion app to “entry a listing of accessible gadgets and control which one streams or casts audio or video from different apps.” The permission description is a bit complicated, however the description that’ll be proven below Settings > Apps > Special app entry > Change media output does a greater job of explaining what this permission does. Specifically, it “permits [an] app to decide on which linked machine performs audio or video from different apps. If allowed, this app can entry a listing of accessible gadgets equivalent to headphones and audio system and select which output machine is used to stream or solid audio or video.”
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(*15*), this permission permits the watch companion app on your cellphone to vary which machine to output audio to, even when that audio is coming from one other app. Once granted this permission, the watch companion app on your cellphone can make the most of privileged distant media routing APIs in Android’s MediaRouter2 class. Because this entry is particularly given to the watch companion app, you’ll be capable to make these modifications to your watch as effectively. This interpretation is confirmed by the developer description of the permission in AOSP, which states that holding MEDIA_ROUTING_CONTROL “permits watches (through companion apps) to control the routing of functions working on the cellphone.”Mishaal Rahman / Android AuthoritySo, in essence, which means that for those who begin media playback on your cellphone however later need to change which machine to output audio to, you received’t must whip out your cellphone to take action. You’ll be capable to change your cellphone’s audio output machine proper from the Wear OS smartwatch on your wrist. Unfortunately, we don’t know precisely which Wear OS gadgets it will work on, as we’ve solely seen code implementing assist for this on the cellphone aspect of issues. It’s probably that your Wear OS smartwatch will want an replace as effectively as a way to add a display screen that interfaces with the watch companion app on your cellphone. We haven’t seen any proof of this in Google’s newest Pixel Watch 2 machine, however we’d be shocked if the corporate isn’t engaged on assist for this function behind the scenes.
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