Media3 MediaSession custom error messages

[abouda]

Is there an equivalent in media3 for these?

• MediaSessionConnector.setCustomErrorMessage() to send a custom error message regardless of player state.
• MediaSessionConnector.setErrorMessageProvider(PlayerErrorMessageProvider) to convert PlaybackException to a custom error message for connected controllers.

[marcbaechinger]

There is no such functionality in Media3.

Who would be the consumer of the error messages?

[abouda]

• The consumer for MediaSessionConnector.setCustomErrorMessage() is AndroidAuto. It sends respective error messages to be displayed on the AndroidAuto screen when something goes wrong with a play action. (for example user not logged in, no book available for resumption, playback error custom message). Right now with media3, the error message just says "Source error" and I want it to be more user friendly.

• The consumer for MediaSessionConnector.setErrorMessageProvider(PlayerErrorMessageProvider) is the MediaControllerCompat in my app (I haven´t migrated that part to media3 yet). I map the PlaybackException to a respective error message that is user friendly, and display it in an alert dialog.
  I see that media3 MediaController has a onPlayerError(PlaybackException) so I am guessing that could be the solution and handle the PlaybackException on the MediaBrowser side.

[abouda]

Also another point is although I could handle the error onPlayerError(PlaybackException) in my app, it does not solve it for legacy controllers like AndroidAuto.

[marcbaechinger]

Yes, this is a regression compared with what's possible with the legacy API.
We need to look into this. Marked as enhancement.

[Bwaim]

@marcbaechinger do you hav any news on this ?

[marcbaechinger]

Yeah, sorry no news yet.

I don't think this will be part of 1.3 I'm afraid. We will update this issue as soon as we pushed a change that adds this.

[Flyktsodan]

Our app update got rejected in playstore review because we didn't send error messages when using android auto. In other words this should be a blocker for many media app(s).

[benjaminVadon]

@marcbaechinger have you any update about this limitation ? Is it planned for the next version ?

[marcbaechinger]

This is planned for 1.4 which is the next release.

[marcbaechinger]

The commit above added an API to send non-fatal errors to a MediaController.

When sent to all controllers or specifically to the media notification controller (MediaSession.getMediaNotificationControllerInfo()), the error code, message and extras are included in the PlaybackStateCompat with state=STATE_ERROR (7) and sent to the platform/legacy session from where a platform or legacy controller (for instance Android Auto) can read it.

[icutvaric]

Hello!

Any updates on this?

Or any suggestion how to do authentication on Automotive OS with Media3: https://developer.android.com/training/cars/media/automotive-os#require-sign-in?

Thanks!

[kelmer44]

Is there a reason why a resource Id is necessary? Could the method not accept just a plain string as well?

[marcbaechinger]

This API has changed. The change that includes this is on its way into the main branch.

There will be a SessionError instead of the three parameters: MediaSession.sendError(ControllerInfo, SessionError). The message argument of the constructor of MediaSession is a String instead of a resource ID. Please use a localized string either way for the benefit of your users.

[kelmer44]

@marcbaechinger thats great! I do plan on using a localized string, only we dont use the android resources in our project, but an alternative solution

[chillbrodev]

This is planned for 1.4 which is the next release.

Is there a potential release date for 1.4?

[marcbaechinger]

We are currently preparing the beta01. The stable release of 1.4.0 is expected to be in mid July.