Media Notification Service #

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

Supported Platforms #

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 (Android only)
• Skip to queue item (Android only)
• Stream-based updates for media changes
• Album art retrieval

Requirements #

Android #

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

Windows #

• Flutter SDK: >=3.0.0
• Windows 10 or later

Setup #

Android #

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();
}

Windows #

No special setup required. Windows uses the System Media Transport Controls (SMTC) API which doesn't require any permissions.

API Reference #

see example app for more details.

MediaNotificationService #

Main service class for interacting with media sessions.

Methods

Legend: ✅ Supported | ❌ Not supported (returns empty/false) | ⚪ Not applicable (always returns true)

PlaybackState #

Enum representing the current playback state:

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

Based on Android PlaybackState

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 #

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)

Windows

• Queue-related features are not supported (queueStream, getQueue(), skipToQueueItem())
• Permission methods (hasPermission(), openSettings()) always return true / do nothing as no permission is required
• Requires the media app to use Windows System Media Transport Controls (SMTC)
• positionStream stability depends on the media app's SMTC implementation
  • ✅ Works correctly: Spotify (desktop app)
  • ⚠️ Unstable: YouTube Music (browser version)

License #

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