Google is always looking to help developers make better applications, and with the expansion of Android to Wear, Auto and TV, there’s a lot more form factors out there to take into account. Google has today announced that they’ve released a reference app for developers to use which will play nicely on Android, no matter the screen size or format.
The app is a music player, which Google have imaginatively named ‘Universal Music Player’. The app is bare bones, but apparently works offering a consistent experience across Android Auto, Android Wear, and even Google Cast devices. Google has made the code available to developers on GitHub to take, modify and feedback as appropriate.
The app uses features from Android 5.0, including MediaStyle notifications, MediaSession and MediaBrowserService and is designed to give consistent media browsing and playback from a single app across devices. If you’re a developer, it’s probably worth a look to see how Google wants you to do it – and then feel free to do whatever makes an awesome app.
I’ve just posted this on the Foxtel forums. Seeing as they have been promising an Android version of their Go app for over 2 years, and so far it supports a grand total of 21 specific devices. They actively block it from working on any other device, including variations of the same (e.g. Galaxy S5 where there might be 4 or 5 different model numbers depending on carrier or region). You should have a read of the forums and count how many times their admins have posted “we’re working hard to bring Foxtel Go to more devies as quickly as… Read more »
…
►►►►►…………..