Automattic / Automattic/pocket-casts-android

[Feature Request] Allow Swapping rewind/fast-forward buttons with skip forward/back

Open
#1,067 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
[Type] Feature
Dominant language
Kotlin
Stars
2.8k
Forks
308
Avg merge
1d 13h
Merged PRs (30d)
143

Description

### What problem does this address?

I could not find a way to do this. I know it is possible to _add_ skip/skip-back to the android media notification and maybe desktop widgets (the desktop widget thing may be buggy?), but there should be a way to remove the rewind/fast-forward buttons or just replace them with skip buttons entirely.

The main reason for this is integration with other apps. For Android Auto, and third-party apps that read the app media info like Garmin's Connect app, it is impossible to skip to the next episode in the queue in Pocket Casts, though seemingly every other podcast app works correctly. On a watch or car interface, a skip feature seems to be a lot more valuable than a fast forward button.

I'd also like the same option on the android widget and in the main interface. Frankly, I never use the ff button and only rarely use rewind. I'm sure there are others who would appreciate the change.

### What is your proposed solution?

Allow replacing fast-forward/rewind buttons entirely with skip/unskip in notifications, widgets, and maybe even the main interface, so that they can be picked up by third-party apps to enable skipping. Or make sure whatever android uses to determine the media skip feature is properly mapped to the skip buttons in notfiications and third party apps.

### Did you search for existing feature suggestions?

- [X] I have searched for existing feature suggestions.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No files or tests are named. Start by locating the Android media notification, widget, and main-player controls, then verify how Android Auto and third-party clients receive media actions; done means a defined configuration can replace rewind/fast-forward with skip/back across the agreed surfaces.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
android, kotlin
Domain
mobile
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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