App to control volume on my iPhone

5381407 21 days ago

Hi everyone,

I am just starting to develop an app to control the media volume on my iPhone. No matter if I use the native music app, Spotify, TuneIn or if I watch YouTube, I want to control the volume from my wrist. The use case is that I have the phone connected to my bluetooth speaker, which doesn't have buttons for controlling the volume, and the phone is away in another room. I have an Vivoactive 4S.

So my questions are:

first of all, is there already an app in the ConnectIQ store that does this? So far I haven't found any.
does the API that allows changing the volume on the iPhone actually exist?
do I need a companion app?
what permisions do I need in this case?

Thanks in advance and I am grateful for any information as I just starting in this journey!

Best regards,

Andreea

Top Replies

FlowState 11 days ago in reply to 5381407 +1 verified

5381407 said:
That only refers to music playing from the watch! I have just tested it.

Have you tried changing the music provider to “Control Phone”?

From the watchface:

- hold the bottom button…
5381407 9 days ago in reply to FlowState +1

Hi,

that was it! I just had to change the music provider to phone. Thanks for your help!

All Replies

0 trux 21 days ago

Most Garmin watches, including Vivoactive 4S already do have Music Playback Controls out of the box, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

vívoactive 4/4S - Music Playback Controls (garmin.com)

0 5381407 21 days ago in reply to trux

Hi trux,

Thanks for your answer. As I said in my post, I want to control the volume on my phone. As far as I see, the Music Playback Controls only changes the volume on the headsets that are connected to the watch, which is not what I want.

Or am I doing it wrong?

Please confirm.

Thanks!

Andreea

0 trux 20 days ago in reply to 5381407

Not sure about Vivoactive 4S, but with my Instinct 2, I can control the volume on the phone from my watch when no headphones are connected, without any problems. I would be surprised if it did not work in the same way with all Garmin watches supporting this feature.

0 5381407 20 days ago in reply to trux

I just removed the paired headphones and it has no effect. Still cannot control the volume on the phone.

Apparently Instinct 2 really has it build in https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-31D23DBB-57C2-4DF7-A0C9-8D1A00AB4BE7/EN-US/GUID-700E76C4-F7E2-4984-8199-D59D6A31DFB9.html#:~:text=Music%20Controls,on%20your%20phone. , unfortunately Vivoactive 4S does not have it.

So my question remains open: any ideas for the API or if I need to create a companion app?

0 trux 20 days ago in reply to 5381407

5381407 said:
Apparently Instinct 2 really has it build in https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-31D23DBB-57C2-4DF7-A0C9-8D1A00AB4BE7/EN-US/GUID-700E76C4-F7E2-4984-8199-D59D6A31DFB9.html#:~:text=Music%20Controls,on%20your%20phone. , unfortunately Vivoactive 4S does not have it.

Still, the manual of Vivoactive 4S claims it does: https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/vivoactive4_4S/EN-US/GUID-8D7F288E-0E62-4DE7-801C-E11948644A96.html

0 5381407 20 days ago in reply to trux

That only refers to music playing from the watch! I have just tested it.

+1 FlowState 11 days ago in reply to 5381407

5381407 said:
That only refers to music playing from the watch! I have just tested it.

Have you tried changing the music provider to “Control Phone”?

From the watchface:

- hold the bottom button until the settings screen appears

- Select Music > Music Providers > Control Phone

It would be really weird if your Garmin couldn’t do this, since Garmins could control music playback on a connected phone before they could play music from the watch itself.

I just tried it out on my 955 and volume control works.

0 5381407 9 days ago in reply to FlowState

Hi,

that was it! I just had to change the music provider to phone. Thanks for your help!