Android 15 might let your Pixel Watch management your telephone’s media output

One advantage of pairing your Android telephone to a smartwatch working Google’s Put on OS platform is you could management your telephone’s media playback proper out of your wrist. I take advantage of this performance on a regular basis once I wish to play or pause a video on my TV whereas I’m making meals or once I wish to change tracks in an album on my good show whereas I’m working. Sadly, one button that the Put on OS media participant is lacking when it’s exhibiting media controls on your telephone is a media output switcher. This implies if you wish to change the gadget your telephone is outputting audio to, it’s essential to choose up your telephone. That might change within the upcoming Android 15 replace, nonetheless.

If you go to pair an Android telephone to a smartwatch working Put on OS, you usually must arrange a companion app in your telephone. This companion app often not solely enables you to change varied choices in your watch from the consolation of your telephone’s bigger display but in addition syncs essential information out of your telephone like its notifications, telephone calls, textual content messages, and extra. Earlier than it may possibly accumulate and ship this information, although, the companion app must request a number of delicate permissions in your telephone.

As an alternative of asking the person to grant every permission individually, the companion app can make the most of Android’s Companion System Profile characteristic to request entry to those needed permissions in a single go. The companion gadget profile for smartwatches android.app.position.COMPANION_DEVICE_WATCH, for instance, grants the companion app permissions associated to calendar entry, telephone name entry, SMS entry, contacts entry, close by gadget scanning, and extra.

Beginning in Android 15, companion apps that focus on Android 15 and request to grow to be the watch gadget profile holder might be granted a brand new platform permission named MEDIA_ROUTING_CONTROL.

The MEDIA_ROUTING_CONTROL permission permits the companion app to “entry an inventory of accessible units and management which one streams or casts audio or video from different apps.” The permission description is a bit complicated, however the description that’ll be proven below Settings > Apps > Particular app entry > Change media output does a greater job of explaining what this permission does. Particularly, it “permits [an] app to decide on which linked gadget performs audio or video from different apps. If allowed, this app can entry an inventory of accessible units resembling headphones and audio system and select which output gadget is used to stream or solid audio or video.”

Principally, this permission permits the watch companion app in your telephone to alter which gadget to output audio to, even when that audio is coming from one other app. As soon as granted this permission, the watch companion app in your telephone can make the most of privileged distant media routing APIs in Android’s MediaRouter2 class. As a result of this entry is particularly given to the watch companion app, you’ll be capable of make these adjustments to your watch as effectively. This interpretation is confirmed by the developer description of the permission in AOSP, which states that holding MEDIA_ROUTING_CONTROL “permits watches (by way of companion apps) to regulate the routing of functions working on the telephone.”

So, in essence, which means that should you begin media playback in your telephone however later wish to change which gadget to output audio to, you received’t must whip out your telephone to take action. You’ll be capable of change your telephone’s audio output gadget proper from the Put on OS smartwatch in your wrist. Sadly, we don’t know precisely which Put on OS units this can work on, as we’ve solely seen code implementing assist for this on the telephone facet of issues. It’s possible that your Put on OS smartwatch will want an replace as effectively with a purpose to add a display that interfaces with the watch companion app in your telephone. We haven’t seen any proof of this in Google’s newest Pixel Watch 2 gadget, however we’d be shocked if the corporate isn’t engaged on assist for this characteristic behind the scenes.