Automattic / Automattic/pocket-casts-android

Playback controls don't work on Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones with Google Assistant turned on

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#1,632 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
[Area] Wear OS [Priority] Low [Type] Bug
Dominant language
Kotlin
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Forks
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Avg merge
1d 13h
Merged PRs (30d)
143

Description

### Description

Similarly to #1578 (fixed in #1620) #1624 and #1628, I have a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones which the playback controls (play/pause, skip back, and skip forward) don't work when you have them set up to work with Google Assistant. If you unpair the headphones from Assistant, the controls work again.

This only happens on Pocket Casts, every other app I've tried like Spotify works fine with these headphones with Assistant on. Every other pair of headphones I've also tried has worked including Pixel Buds A-Series.

### Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Connect over Bluetooth a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones
2. Inside the Sony Headphones Connect app, go to System > Change function of [CUSTOM] button and activate Google Assistant
3. Open Pocket Casts and start playback
4. Double tap the right earcup and you will hear a beep indicating you successfully did the gesture but it won't pause
5. Swipe left and right on the same earcup, another beep for each, but it won't skip back or forward respectively.
6. Go back into the Sony Headphones Connect app and change the same setting to something else
7. Repeat 3-5 and it should work properly this time.

### Screenshots or screen recording

_No response_

### Did you search for existing bug reports?

- [X] I have searched for existing bug reports.

### Device, Operating system, and Pocket Casts app version

Google Pixel 6a, Android 14, Pocket Casts 7.54-rc-3 (although it also affected earlier versions, no idea how far back)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing the issue on a Pixel 6a running Android 14 with Pocket Casts 7.54-rc-3, using the Sony Headphones Connect settings described in the report. Compare playback controls with Google Assistant enabled and disabled; done means play/pause, skip back, and skip forward work reliably in both configurations.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
android, kotlin
Domain
mobile
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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