Screen rotation based pause feature

Feature request
1

App version: 3.11.3 Google Play

Problem you may be having, or feature you want: I’d like AntennaPod to support a gesture-based pause feature inspired by the “Rotate” feature in Smart Audiobook Player.
This is extremely useful when you need to quickly pause the podcast and don’t want to fumble for the pause button, especially if the screen is off. The face-down gesture is intuitive and unambiguous.

Suggested solution:

  • When the phone is flipped face-down (screen facing the surface) during playback, playback pauses automatically.
  • If the phone is flipped back face-up within 5 minutes, playback resumes automatically.
  • If the user manually pauses playback or the 5 minutes timer exceeds during pause, the feature becomes inactive until the user manually resumes playback again (so it doesn’t interfere with intentional pausing).

Screenshots / Drawings / Technical details:

Use the device’s accelerometer/gravity sensor to detect when the screen is facing downward. The feature should be opt-in (off by default) and maybe configurable (e.g. the 5-minute resume window).

2

TBH I tend to use the Pause button on whatever speaker or ear/headphones I happen to be using which means I don’t have to fiddle with the phone at all but just leave it in my pocket.

3

We are considering to redesign the player screen, should keep small screens in mind when doing so. Player screen UX/UI work

4

I often listen to podcasts together with my wife while doing household chores, so in those cases I don’t use headphones. I find it tedious to interrupt what I’m currently doing just to look for the pause button in the widget or to unlock my phone.

However, I’ve noticed that when we listen to audiobooks together (using Smart Audiobook Player), it’s very convenient to simply flip the phone quickly when one of us wants to say something about the book, because the effort required for that motion is very low. So I thought that this feature would add value here as well, if more people listen to their podcasts together with others or just don’t use headphones all the time.