Media Bar

IJP

Contains ads

About this app

Media Bar (beta) doubles up your system's status bar as a media playback controller and progress indicator!

Whether you're listening to a podcast/music while browsing/gaming/multitasking or watching videos, you can now not only see the progress of the media through a thin bar at the top/bottom of your status bar but can also scrub through the media by swiping left/right on the status bar.

You can now quickly jump to a specific segment or forward/backward in steps of your song/podcast/video. Watching a long movie/podcast? Media Bar can be color coded to tell you the progress of the playback. Example:- Green Media Bar till 75% of the podcast, and it turns red till 100%.

Media Bar also has 3 invisible buttons that can be assigned to perform specific actions upon single tap, double tap and long press. The buttons touch regions can be customized as well.

Available actions/playback controls for Media Bar:

✓ Play/Pause
✓ Backward
✓ Forward
✓ Jump Backward by 'X' seconds
✓ Jump Forward by 'X' seconds
✓ Launch App

Media Bar features:

✓ The 3 invisible button regions can be adjusted.
✓ Media Bar can be configured to be as thin as 1 pixel.
✓ Media Bar can be located either top or bottom of the Status Bar.
✓ Media Bar's background can be opaque or transparent.
✓ Media Bar's origin can be configured to be left/center/right.
✓ Media Bar can auto hide on full screen Apps.
✓ Media Bar can be color coded with various color configurations available.

Media Bar color coded:

✓ Solid - Media Bar will always display in a single(any) color of your choice.
✓ Dynamic - Media Bar can change colors according to either the App which is playing the media or based on the album art of the media.
✓ Segments - Whole of Media Bar will change to a specific color based on progress of media.
✓ Merged Segment - Media Bar will display all the segments of color you've assigned while making the progress.
✓ Gradient Segment - Whole of Media Bar will gracefully change its color as it progresses from one segment of the media playing to another.
✓ Gradient - Media Bar will display a gradient of color as it progresses through the media.

Starting up Instructions:
* Click the top right toggle to go to Accessibility Settings, find and turn on Media Bar (you may have to look for it inside 'Downloaded Services')
* Enabling the Accessibility Service should open 'Notification Access' settings, allow Media Bar access. In case 'Notification Access' settings doesn't open automatically on your phone, please find it in System settings.
* Both the Accessibility Service and Notification Access needs to be always on for Media Bar to work.

Accessibility Service Requirement:
Android requires Energy Bar to run as an Accessibility Service, to be able to display on Lock Screen. It does not read/monitor any data, whatsoever. This is especially useful for people who have disability to read numbers and work better with visual data.

No charging animation? Solution for Samsung devices
Settings > Accessibility > Visibility enhancements > Remove Animations > uncheck if it's checked.

Ratings and reviews

Should be the final edit of my review. Was having synchronization issues. The media bar was moving much faster than whatever media source I used to test it [and I tried multiple ones]. The problem was I changed my 'animator duration scale' in 'developer options' to .5x. Setting it back the the default [1x] solved this issue. The other two animation scale settings don't seem to effect it. For anyone having the same problem this is the fix. Finally I can give this app the 5 stars it deserves.

It Drove Me Insane! At first I thought it could be a bit useful but that faded in comparison to how EXTREMELY ANNOYING it became when it would cause videos to replay all the time. What was EVEN MORE ANNOYING is how it would cause videos to randomly start playing in the middle of the night and at other times. I'd have a podcast video playing in my vehicle, get out and go into a restaurant, then the video would start playing loudly from my pocket!! This happened all the time!

Revised rating! Is anyone paying attention to this beta (3 years now) app? I really like it but I shouldn't have to donate money every time I upgrade my device. Until I read these other reviews I had NO idea that this is why my YouTube or Spotify randomly play out of nowhere like in the middle of the night, in a meeting or ANYWHERE, ANY TIME!! I went so far as to reinstall both apps and write scathing letters to those guys! This is a deal breaker, and there's just zero app support. Total bummer

What's new

Bug Fixes: The location of bar now sticks to 'bottom' of Status Bar once set.