Roon to support Widgets on Apple devices (iPadOS and iOS) [IMPLEMENTED]

Hi all

Sorry if this has been addressed before. Are basic controls on iOS lock screen a possibility? (with Apples current demands for background network processes)

Best regards

15 Likes

Hi Christian,

Although your request is specific to iOS I have transferred it to Feature Requests where it is more likely to attract comment from other users and be seen as a potential new feature by the devs.

I would very much like to have quick access to start/stop/volume controls on my iPad. Waking the app and rediscovering my server can take 5-7 seconds, which doesn’t sound like much but can be annoying.

2 Likes

This is possible to do. I think the Google PlayMusic app does it by sending silence to the iOS playback system in the background even when playing music to a local ChromeCast. Seems to work well enough (and doesn’t drain the battery).

That statement about Google Play Music might be true, or it might not. Apple has been very clear from the beginning that that is not allowed, though:

Apps that play audio content in the background must play audible content and not silence.

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/BackgroundExecution/BackgroundExecution.html

True, but the review guidelines and the developer docs are two separate beasts. :smile:

Any news on this topic? With the nes watchOS 4 it would be a really nice add-on, that would give easy access to control the music, just by raising the arm.

1 Like

I’d love to have this. This would be a huge functionality boost.

1 Like

Do you know how e.g. Sonos gets around this? Just tried their app on an iOS device a few days ago, and it shows playback controls on the lock screen, and seems to retrieve current playback details in real-time.

Best, Chrisris

2 Likes

I never said it’s impossible. I only commented on silence playback.

Hi @danny ,
Roon ready partner Bluesound has an ios widget. I use it in combination with roon all the time. It’s unfortunate roon doesn’t have one as this is by far the fastest way to change volume and change track.

1 Like

Yup, using it as well:

I use Harmony widget for activity selection, volume control on the Meridian DSPs and play/pause on the Node. The Bluesound widget comes in handy for track info, back/skip and five radio presets.

But usually I just take one of the Logitech ‘dumb’ remotes that are laying around the house. These are programmed for all of the above, plus source and Dirac filter selections on the MiniDSP.

Ergonomics count.

1 Like

As a powernode2 user the volume can be adjusted using the BluOs widget as well. So this is very handy.
Still this widget only controls the bluesound zone. I’d love to see roon create one where you can switch between zones and control simple things like volume and track

I know – use the Pulse2 in the bedroom like this:

Still: I taught the buttons of a spare Apple TV mini remote to the Pulse. Much easier to operate in the dark. :slight_smile:

The current zone switcher would make a great widget I think
Just add a previous & next button

Looks good.

Any news to this topic? It shouldn’t be so hard to provide a simple widget. Single developers with free Apps can also do this.

People sometimes ask me: What did you pay for that App that doesn’t provide such basic stuff? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

It would be intersting to hear, if this feature is planned or not.

Btw, does someone know about a workaround with other Apps like Workflow to control ROCK?

1 Like

Any update on lock screen controls? Sonos just removed them in their latest update (blaming Airplay 2), which has triggered me to start look for an alternative. I used to use this feature all the time with my Sonos system and it would be a great addition to the Roon platform. I started my two-week trail a few minutes ago and this was the first feature I searched for.

1 Like

@danny I would love to see basic controls on the lock screen as well. Sometimes I just want to pause Roon on my iPad without having to unlock to get to the app.

Every media player [Tidal, Pandora, etc.] that resides on my iOS device does provide basic controls like Play, Pause, Track forward and backward.

6 Likes

People here are mixing two things:

  • apple ios widget: can be placed on the lockscreen by the user. Any company is free to create any widget it wants. Like the nice pics of bluesound

  • telling IOs that an app is playing music in the background (via an api) gives you the standard IOs music controls on the lockscreen. Spotify for instance does it, even when using a Spotify connect device!

My vote is to implement both. The later is more integrated to the IOS, the former allows for more freedom in the UI design.

AFAIK the only constraint for using the background api is that the app can also play locally on the IOS device. Since Roon CAN be configured to output audio on the local device, this constraint should be fulfilled and Apple will probably not block such an implementation. Sure, most of us disable the output on the local device and use out DACs/streamers. That is ok.

The background api is quite easy to use. As is the widget api.

Since the main purpose of Roon is a good user experience, and this integration to the OS greatly enhances UX, I‘d like to suggest Roon prioritizes the implementation of such CRs.

@danny please take note (I just learned how to mention users…)

6 Likes

The problem with iOS volume control in my experience is that a single click is too big a jump in volume even for iOS use, and worse still when used to control an external device.
Worse still, some Chromecast implementations give a single click an even bigger jump in volume. Qobuz was particularly bad in this respect when I trialled it. So while I agree that it seems like a good idea, it does require careful implementation in order to work effectively.