Expected behaviour: Button appears in the Quick Settings panel, pressing it plays/pauses playback
Current behaviour: Button no longer exists after update to 3.12.0
First occurred: Today
Steps to reproduce:
App updated overnight
Quick Settings button vanished from Top Quick Settings panel where it was saved
AntennaPod no longer appears as a Quick Settings option
Environment: Nothing special. Reboot of phone did not restore the button. For clarity, Quick Settings are the android buttons to quickly turn on/off features such as WiFi, Bluetooth, Flashlight, etc.
Yes, it was removed. The reason is that recent Android versions make it harder to reliably start playback services from anywhere, including quick settings tiles. The quick tile was originally meant as a workaround for the notification sometimes not working. The new AntennaPod version includes a lot of improvements around the playback notification and integration with the system. Starting playback should be possible by just pulling down your notification area and resuming from there
It’s a feature I used quite a bit, as media controls are not shown by default on my phone notifications (perhaps there’s a setting I missed, I will explore), which means it requires 3 actions to pause playback compared to 2 with the quick settings tile.
Creating an account and logging in just to voice my sadness at this development. That Quick Tile button was the only reliable way I had to start my podcast app from the lock screen. I used it probably dozens of times every day, and I have found no other way to actually make the app / mini player stay in place on the lock screen. This is incredibly disappointing.
Unfortunately, this has not been true 100% of the time in my experience on Pixel 6 Pro. After using the app without the Quick Tile for the last 24 hours, the mini player is definitely more persistent on the pulldown menu, but sometimes it’s still not there at all, or if another app is playing something (like a music app) that app will take priority on the pulldown menu. So if I’m listening to music and want to switch to AntennaPod (an extremely common use case, multiple times a day), I have to pull down the menu, move down below the Quick Tiles, slide the mini player to the right to switch the focused app, and then press the Play button. Compare that to just having a dedicated button right at the top of the pulldown menu that never disappears and immediately takes priority and starts playing when I press it. Until the app has something that matches that level of speed and reliability, this is a net negative update.
No, no, no, it is not. Payback controls disappear mainly when i get a phone call for a longer duration. Just for instance. That quick settings button was the only one and the fastest way to resume playing. Bring it back please
Hi! Agreed with 1Roso and DudeLongcouch, my Pixel 8a consistently hides the media control pull down if I switch to other active apps after pausing playback. The quick action tile was key to how I started or stopped playback and would work consistently without issue. Please bring this feature back (I made an account here purely for this feedback). Obligatory thanks to devs who have made an excellent app!
Expected behaviour: Tile button exists that lets you quickly start up the app (Tiles are those buttons at the top of your screen that turn on and off settings quickly like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, flashlight, etc. Not to be confused with the player controls and episode description for Now Playing in your notifications)
Current behaviour: Tile no longer exists and can’t be added back.
First occurred: First noticed today. I believe it was there two days ago.
Steps to reproduce: Look at your tiles and see if it’s there or not.
Environment: (Settings you have changed (e.g. Auto Download). “Unusual” devices you use (e.g. Bluetooth headphones).)
I suppose I should ask: if others are still having issues, and I presume this tile didn’t interfere with the functionality of any other feature, what harm is it in leaving it as an optional (by default off, even) feature? Is there some tech debt that is accumulating, one more thing to maintain, or does it interfere with operations in some other way?
I was able to reconfigure some settings, less than ideal configurations for me, but passable, which allowed for decently quick pausing, but after any length of time away on any other app (even those without media) the controls in the notification area are not there, and I have to either use a widget on the home screen after unlocking, or open the app itself to resume playing. Not ideal. Workaround or no, the quick tile was useful for quick stops and starts.
It was removed because it no longer works. Since we switched to the official media3 library from Google, the tile simply crashed the app. This is not a question of “leaving it” or “restoring it”. It is a question of adding new code that actively violates Android guidelines and tries to work around Android background service restrictions.
I will add that the notification media isn’t persistent. It was my preferred method of resuming a podcast until Google broke it with some Android update years back. (Don’t even get my started on their idiotic “Dose” mode that has wrecked my notification timing for years that I can’t do anything about)
They later introduced the ability to add a tile card to the notification shader which made a workable band-aid fix. Now that’s been taken away with an update to Android 17 on my Pixel 10 Pro. Big sad. Every time they update the app it just makes the phones less and less customizable & useful.
This has been incredibly annoying as I literally played & paused podcasts many dozens of times per day, every day. This has impacted my user experience dramatically. There’s got to be a better way to handle this than how it currently exists.
Please tell me there’s something in the works to restore this functionality for heavy users who rely on it many times an hour, daily.
In understand the frustration of something disappearing that you used daily, but let me crush the hope: this will not come back. And for a very valid reason already shared before:
We won’t add back functionality that makes Google’s Android crash our app.
For anyone still experiencing issues with the media notification not working on their device: please create a separate topic. Since this topic is ‘solved’ (original request has a definitive reply) comments about something else (the media notification) would not get the appropriate attention.
By removing the button we can’t play the content right away from menu, continue playing when interrupted. And now the AnthenaPod is again losing playing content after a while, after a phone call, etc.
Fix it please, bring back the button, even just as an option
If anyone is interested in a third party solution Ive used this for a couple days with success for my use case. Running on my pixel 8a Android 17, using the play pause quick tile has consistently played the last played media of a session while unlocked, locked, with and without the media control view present in the pull down menu. Each time it has activated the media control view from which i can further skip, scan, etc. I cant vouch for its safety as an app as that is not my expertise. GitHub - flxholle/QuickTiles: Android Quick Settings Tiles. Mirrored from https://gitlab.com/flxholle/quick-tiles · GitHub
To that point i am curious if this app can trigger a play/pause without the media player present (without crashing my phone or antennapod so far), why this cant be implemented in antennapod.
I am also wondering, since this seems to have been an important part of the ui as the media player seems unreliably pinned (in my experience), if there is another means to supplement the media player within or via antennapod to quickly trigger the player if it becomes unpinned.
Regardless, I will continue using the bandaid solution above.
