Media Notification Service

A Flutter plugin for Android that allows you to access and control media playing from other apps through the Android MediaSession API.

Features

Access currently playing media information (title, artist, album, album art)
Control playback (play, pause, skip, stop, seek)
Real-time playback position tracking
Queue information
Skip to queue item
Stream-based updates for media changes
Album art retrieval

Requirements

Flutter SDK: >=3.0.0
Kotlin support enabled in your Android project

Setup

1. Update AndroidManifest.xml

Add the notification listener service to your app's AndroidManifest.xml:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.yourapp">

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BIND_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SERVICE" />

    <application
        android:label="your_app"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher">

        <!-- Add this service -->
        <service
            android:name="com.example.media_notification_service.MediaNotificationListener"
            android:label="Media Notification Listener"
            android:permission="android.permission.BIND_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SERVICE"
            android:exported="true">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.service.notification.NotificationListenerService" />
            </intent-filter>
        </service>

        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            ...>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

2. Request Notification Listener Permission

Users must grant notification listener permission to your app. You can check and request this permission:

final service = MediaNotificationService();

// Check if permission is granted
bool hasPermission = await service.hasPermission();

if (!hasPermission) {
  // Open system settings to grant permission
  // openSettings() waits for the user to return from settings
  await service.openSettings();

  // Check again after opening settings
  hasPermission = await service.hasPermission();
}

API Reference

see example app for more details.

MediaNotificationService

Main service class for interacting with media sessions.

Methods

Method	Return Type	Description
`mediaStream`	`Stream<MediaInfoWithQueue?>`	Stream of media information updates
`positionStream`	`Stream<PositionInfo?>`	Stream of playback position updates
`queueStream`	`Stream<List<QueueItem?>?>`	Stream of queue updates
`getCurrentMedia()`	`Future<MediaInfo?>`	Get current media information
`getQueue()`	`Future<List<QueueItem?>?>`	Get current queue
`hasPermission()`	`Future<bool>`	Check if notification listener permission is granted
`openSettings()`	`Future<void>`	Open system settings for notification listener permission
`playPause()`	`Future<bool>`	Toggle play/pause
`skipToNext()`	`Future<bool>`	Skip to next track
`skipToPrevious()`	`Future<bool>`	Skip to previous track
`stop()`	`Future<bool>`	Stop playback
`seekTo(Duration position)`	`Future<bool>`	Seek to specific position
`skipToQueueItem(int id)`	`Future<bool>`	Skip to specific queue item

PlaybackState

Enum representing the current playback state:

none
stopped
paused
playing
fastForwarding
rewinding
buffering
error
connecting
skippingToPrevious
skippingToNext
skippingToQueueItem

see Android Developers

Important Notes

Permissions

Users must manually grant Notification Listener permission in system settings
The app cannot programmatically grant this permission
Always check hasPermission() before using media controls

Limitations

Only works on Android
Requires the media app to properly implement MediaSession
Some apps may not provide complete metadata
Album art size depends on the source app (may be large)

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.