Develop Reference

Android Service to detect video playback on a third party Video Player

I need to develop an Android Service (API level > 21), which should be able to detect video playback on a third party Video player, so that it can further disable the Notification pop-ups during a video playback.
On searching, I found several posts talking about detecting the play-states of videos in a VideoView, such as the following:
How to detect when VideoView starts playing (Android)?
But, I couldn't find anything that can help detecting video playback on a video player, wherein, the video player is installed as a third party app and is not a part of the Android application/ service.
So, the challenges are:
1) The android service needs to detect a video playback
2) Registering package names for video player apps with the Service is out of question, since the Service should be able to detect the playback even when a new video player is installed from the Playstore.
3) Need to extend this idea for online video streaming as well.
Any help in this regard would be really appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

There is no way to implement 100% reliable video playback detection :(
Just and idea: try listening to the audio focus changes... this might help with detection of video playback, assuming the target player respects the audio output stream usage policy, recommended by Google. You might also want to get notified about system UI visibility changes (to detect fullscreen playback).
Audio focus:
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media-apps/volume-and-earphones.html
System UI visibility changes:
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.OnSystemUiVisibilityChangeListener.html
Also, you are correct saying that package name based detector is not an option since detecting active/running package is no longer possible on android 7.

Set the volume control stream from a service on Android

I'm working on a music app which consists in a Service playing music while other apps are running.
In order to enjoy the music and only the music, the Service mutes all the other apps. In order to do that, it mutes STREAM_MUSIC and play music over STREAM_VOICE_CALL (found that solution to mute other apps here)
As the Service uses STREAM_VOICE_CALL to play music, what I'm trying to find is a way to make the volume buttons control this stream when a sound is playing.
What I already tried:
setVolumeControlStream: only works in Activities
Capturing volume keys pressed events: Services do not receive such events (source)
audioManager.setMode(AudioManager.MODE_IN_CALL) : does not work in my case. Plus, the SDK documentation states that this "mode should only be used by the telephony application when it places a phone call".
At this point, I'm out of options and any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I would personally not suggest you to STREAM_VOICE_CALL as it is meant to be recommended to use it for Voice calls as compared to media playback. Using this may prevent you from using features exposed by Android for media playback.
Having said this & taking into consideration your use-case, I think you need to look for changing 'call volume' level as compared to 'media volume' level.
Have a look at the MediaPlaybackService.java as used in the stock Music Player app and try to customize it as per your needs.

I havn't tried it myself. but looks like it should work. Kindly try it out.
m_audioManager = (AudioManager)getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);
setVolumeControlStream(AudioManager.STREAM_VOICE_CALL);
m_audioManager.setMode(AudioManager.MODE_IN_CALL);

Play audio file when receiving the call [duplicate]

Is it possible to modify an active call by overlaying a sound track during the call? I looked up the SDK, but couldn't find any API to do this in the documentation.
I am trying to investigate the feasibility of playing a previously recorded call/audio clip onto an ongoing call.

Is it possible to modify an active call by overlaying a sound track during the call?
No, sorry, there is no API to access the in-call audio stream.

Play an audio clip onto an ongoing call

Is it possible to modify an active call by overlaying a sound track during the call? I looked up the SDK, but couldn't find any API to do this in the documentation.
I am trying to investigate the feasibility of playing a previously recorded call/audio clip onto an ongoing call.

Is it possible to modify an active call by overlaying a sound track during the call?
No, sorry, there is no API to access the in-call audio stream.

Android: Detect another application has started playing audio

My music application constantly plays music in the background, however I'd like to be able to detect when another application starts playing audio (such as the YouTube app) so I can pause/mute/stop the audio in my application.
This will allow a user to continue browsing the web whilst listening to music, but then if they wish to watch a video at any point, they can do so without audio conflict.
One solution might be to listen for a broadcast which states when an application begins using the AudioManager. Does such an Intent Action exist?
Edit: As in the answer provided below, there appears to be a method of detecting the loss of audio focus in 2.2 with AudioManager.OnAudioFocusChangeListener.
Great, but is there a solution for the more common versions of Android? Ideally 1.5+.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/AudioManager.OnAudioFocusChangeListener.html
this thread also has additional information that might get you heading in the right direction.
http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/db6822d84feaac6/219d8cba07795c61?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=OnAudioFocusChangeListener#219d8cba07795c61