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Switching Folders via Bluetooth Car Audio Controls


Jabolio

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I only discovered Poweramp last week, and I must say that I'm very impressed!  Ease of use, sound quality, responsiveness, it's a hell of a thing.

 

I've been using it with my car's BT audio controls.  Most of the controls work, but a few don't, and I don't know if there's something I'm doing wrong, or if it's just something that hasn't been implemented.  The car's audio controls include folder navigation buttons as well as random and repeat buttons.  These don't seem to have any effect on Poweramp.  Should they?  I haven't tried fiddling with the single/double/triple press settings, but I think it'd be neat if the folder controls would be recognized.

 

FYI it's the stock stereo that came in a 2013 Corolla.

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I have a similar problem, but have had Poweramp since I bought my Alpine bluetooth radio receiver for my truck, and they just recently removed some of that functionality, apparently?

 

When I first got the program it had the option to double press to switch between folders. It also had gapless (supposedly) but this only worked outside of the Alpine receiver, which always pauses between songs for some reason. However, on the Alpine receiver the Poweramp app did have double-press functionality as well as single press functionality and fast-forward as well.

 

Now I lose the ability to switch between folders thanks to the new options list, which especially sucks because a) Bluetooth doesn't have a search function at all, b ) I have eight gigabytes of music on my Galaxy SIII phone, and c) Android removed the option to use the phone as a removable flash storage device so I can't plug it into the system via USB. 

 

Poweramp has been a pretty good app. I really hope there's some sort of workaround to the loss of the old "double-press to change folders" system.

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Update:

 

OK, so I was dumb. I had seen this feature before (and been using it) but recently it got disabled on my phone and the way it's worded in the options menu is confusing. I'd thought they'd removed the "switch folders" feature.

 

Here's what you do Jabolio:

 

First off, search function does not work over Bluetooth. Neither will the shuffle buttons on car stereos. Bluetooth protocol hasn't been designed for them yet--at least not for aftermarket stereos in the midrange. Neither is album select. Mine's $300 and when I called Alpine over the phone they told me that it simply would not work in those ways for my phone.

 

That's partly because of Apple, from what I understand--Apple has most of the good patents with car stereos and makes it very difficult for competitors to get similar functionality in stereos. This is also why most Android phones can no longer be plugged into stereos by USB--Android ditched mass storage support and the car stereo makers ditched MTP at the same time so that Android phones couldn't connect and so only iPhones could do that. I don't know why Android would do that to its own customers, but increasingly I'm learning that Android does weird things that don't make much sense to my non-brilliant-programmer-extraordinaire mind.

 

However, Poweramp does have a way to switch between albums, which is a double-press or long-press feature--you say you haven't tried fiddling with it? You should--it works well. First, tap the menu icon on your phone. On my Galaxy SIII it's the one left of the bottom button. Go to settings. Then go to Headset/Bluetooth.

 

Now here's where I got confused: Go to Bluetooth and tap it. You'll get a list of options:  Single press (fast), Double/Triple press for next/prev. track, and Long press for next track. These are written confusingly and the description given (i.e. double press switches tracks) is incorrect. What they mean is more like this:

 

-Single press (fast): Switches between tracks.

-Double/Triple press for next/prev. track: Single press switches between tracks, double press switches between foldersThis is the one I have enabled with my Galaxy SIII phone and receiver, and when I have it enabled it allows me to tap the >> or << key once for switches between songs and the >> or << key twice rapidly to switch between albums.

-Long press for next track: Single press switches between tracks, long press switches between folders. Note that this is theoretical (i.e. I never tried it to find out if it works).

 

Now after pressing it (it's my experience you have to do this to get it working) first turn off Poweramp and then turn it on again. Then restart your car stereo. On mine that involves pressing the lit blue menu button between the << and >> keys until it comes back to BT Audio. 

 

I find that this system works very reliably (and happily I was able to restore it on my phone today.) I suppose they could figure out a way so that tapping the folder switch key on the stereo sent a double press signal to the phone or something similar. Ultimately, though, that would be on the stereo manufacturer's end--and based on what I know of these things, Android would probably disable the functionality the second the stereo makers find a solution.

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Double/Triple/Long press description is given assuming just one button (play) available. (So double or long press will do the additional action). This mostly applies to wired headsets.

 

BT devices usually also have << >> buttons. Poweramp applies the long/double press logic to these buttons as well. Many BT headsets/devices implement long press on the device itself (usually - it's fast forward/rewind commands). Double press (when enabled) on << >> then works as List change buttons( <<< >>>), for example: if Folders list is played, folders are changed.

 

Please note that Double press scheme always introduces some (~500ms) lag: first press can't be processed immediately as Poweramp waits for second press a bit and then processes the command. The "Single press (fast)" scheme reacts immediately on button presses and this is default for BT devices. It's also recommended for 3 button (HTC style) wired headsets.

 

Thanks!

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