You can't build such an app with CIQ.  Can't the buttons on your headphones allow skip forward and back as well as volume?

Also see https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/cycling/f/edge-1030/214842/how-can-i-have-control-from-my-garmin-1030-to-apps-music-in-my-smartphone

Ok thanks.  It's frustrating to not be able to build an app with CIQ for the Garmin Edge devices.  Seems like such an obvious capability that many developers would value, as opposed to targeting just the Garmin watch devices.

Yes of course the buttons on one's headphones can do simple actions like adjust the volume and skip forward/backward.

The intended use case I was envisioning involves more granular control over playback directly from a Garmin Edge unit.

For example:

• switch between various media playback apps on your phone (e.g. a music player, a podcast player, an audiobook playback app, etc). 
  • For example, being able to navigate one's queue in the Google Podcasts app to select which podcast to listen to (and the ability to skip the currently playing one).
• ability to drag the current playback cursor of a long podcast episode or audiobook to a desired timestamp directly on the Garmin Edge screen.
  
  • These more fine-grained media playback capabilities aren't possible with headphone buttons (please correct me if I'm wrong) and require the user to reach back to pull out their phone to do these actions, which is not safe and far from ideal versus having those capabilities on the Garmin Edge unit.

Ideally, the user would have access to the exact same UI that they would see for that media app on their phone as on the Garmin Edge screen.  You could see which songs are next on your playlist, which podcast episodes are in the current queue, etc.

did you ever find a solution to this??? I would even pay for it!!!!

jim_m_58 said:

Can't the buttons on your headphones allow skip forward and back as well as volume?

You'd be surprised, but most versions of AirPods don't allow you control the volume (AirPods Pro 2nd gen are an exception to this.) Beats Fit Pro force you to choose between controlling noise cancellation and controlling volume.

The first generation of Bose QuietComfort earbuds allows you to set a shortcut to either skip back or skip forward, but not both.

I've also used older earbuds, where both volume control and skip back/forward were possible, but one or the other was not very usable. Like with Jaybird Tarah Pro, the skip (track) backwards command requires you to hold a button for 2 seconds, so there was no way to skip tracks backwards quickly. In cases like that, using the music controls on a phone or watch would be much more efficient if you want to skip a few tracks backwards.

CJ_denim said:

Ideally, the user would have access to the exact same UI that they would see for that media app on their phone as on the Garmin Edge screen.  You could see which songs are next on your playlist, which podcast episodes are in the current queue, etc.

Idk if you use Spotify, but UI/UX for Spotify on Garmin watches is a nightmare - lots of missing features and usability issues. The most glaring one is that you can't select an individual song from a playlist. You're restricted to selecting a playlist to play (either from the beginning or in random order). The only way to "select" a song is to play the playlist in non-random order and press the "skip track forward" button repeatedly.  (This problem doesn't exist in the native Garmin music player.)

Selecting anything from a list that further than 3-6 items from the top is a nightmare, too (e.g. when selecting playlists or podcast episodes to sync), because the watch takes several seconds to load every 3 (or so) items when you scroll.

Speaking of syncing, you can't queue up items to sync, you have to select one at a time and wait for each one to sync before selecting the next one. So syncing multiple items is a time-consuming slog.

But don't take my word for it, check out the negative reviews here:

apps.garmin.com/.../30c6c876-ba43-4cbb-b4c7-03583a7cb66b

Such as:

> App crashes watch when pressing back 15sec button repeatedly (on long podcasts) Support for podcasts is limited, progress in an episode is not synched between app and watch

and

> If you want a podcast episode that isn’t the first ten or so, be prepared to scroll a long long time.

Personally I create a new dedicated playlist just for my Garmin watch whenever I want to sync a new (to my watch) playlist, bc it's pretty much impossible to scroll to anything that's too far down the list.

I don't know if Spotify or Garmin developed that app, but Garmin obviously allows it to exist in that state.

All of that is to say, I wouldn't have any confidence that a music player implementation on Edge would be user friendly at all.

Anyway, you can try submitting your idea to the Garmin ideas site: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/

Too bad Garmin doesn't publish these ideas and allow people to comment on them, like Spotify: community.spotify.com/.../newideas

"You'd be surprised, but most versions of AirPods don't allow you control the volume (AirPods Pro 2nd gen are an exception to this.) Beats Fit Pro force you to choose between controlling noise cancellation and controlling volume"

Not surprised at all.  Apple has always been about them and not supporting anyone else.  Look at MTP music devices for another example!

Since Music on Garmin devices came out (the fr645m was the first one), I've use various Skullcandy, JBL, and Klipsh headphones without issue (I have about 7 different earbuds/headphones)

I can skip the current song, change the volume, etc from the headphone and can easily change other things from the Garmin on my wrist.

A rider/user should also be able to select a podcast episode from the Garmin Edge screen.  In an Android music or podcast app, this is trivial. The Garmin Edge should allow users to similarly select from many podcast episodes rather than the user needing to reach into their back pocket, fumble around for their phone, take a hand off the handlebar, and try to browse their podcast player app for a given episode.  Doing this at home is safe. Doing this while riding is dangerous.  The Garmin Edge unit should enable mirroring functionality of choosing a podcast in a manner similar to doing so on one's phone. 

jim_m_58 said:

the fr645m was the first one

That's relevant because? Anyone can look up the history of music-enabled Garmins if they wanted to.

Also, Garmin's have been able to control music playback on a connected phone long before the Forerunner 645 Music came out. And the OP's request is about controlling music playback on a connected phone.

jim_m_58 said:

Not surprised at all.  Apple has always been about them and not supporting anyone else

I know you're a big fan of not reading entire posts or comments, but I also mentioned another major brand (Bose) which had incomplete playback controls on its earbuds (*), and a third brand (Jaybird), which had user-unfriendly controls.

(* These earbuds, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds -- also had a ton of usability issues like the touch controls being triggered by the wind or wearing a hat or hoodie. To be fair they fixed a lot of the issues in the 2nd generation).

jim_m_58 said:

Look at MTP music devices for another example!

You brought this up before and I mentioned that MTP is a Microsoft protocol. Doesn't really surprise me that Apple wouldn't want to support a competitor's protocol out of the box.

Also, it's funny you should criticize Apple for incompatibility with a Microsoft protocol when Microsoft has a long history of purposely breaking standards and engaging in monopolistic behavior: Internet Explorer, Office, etc., etc. I'm sure you remember the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.

It's only recently that Microsoft has embraced open standards and open source, and it's only because the tech landscape has changed.

Anyway, Apple's customer-unfriendly practices are besides the point. Walk around any major North American metropolis (like say, Arizona), and you'll notice that airpods and iphones are ubiquitous. Whether you like Apple or not, they're very good at marketing and there's a literally a whole generation that wouldn't even consider using Android products.

It's a literally a thing where iphone users shame their friends, family members or dates for having green text message bubbles (which means they're using android). This is something that major media outlets like Wall Street Journal "report" on. You may think it's just shallow fashion and trends (which it is), but it drives consumer behavior:

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-teens-dread-the-green-text-bubble-11641618009

Why Apple’s iMessage Is Winning: Teens Dread the Green Text Bubble

The iPhone maker cultivated iMessage as a must-have texting tool for teens. Android users trigger a just-a-little-less-cool green bubble: ‘Ew, that’s gross.’

For context, I know 30-somethings who are just like this. And today's teens are tomorrow's adults. And this trend is not "new" by any means. (If mainstream media is talking about a trend, you know it's years old.)

jim_m_58 said:

can easily change other things from the Garmin on my wrist.

Yeah, and the OP was asking to have similar capabilities on the Edge. Sounds like you just inadvertently made an argument in favor of that.

No, unfortunately.  Amazing to me that so much phone functionality can be transmitted to the Garmin Edge for some reason that hasn't been clearly explained, it's not possible to send podcast/music playback controls to the Garmin Edge with a simple UI.

I agree with you that it would be nice, but again I'll point out that the Spotify app on Garmin watches is terrible, so you're not missing much tbh. There are issues with Spotify podcasts on watches, too.

I guess if you only use the native music player it's ok (but how many people are manually syncing MP3s in 2023?)

EDIT: Now I see my comment doesn't make any sense, since the request has nothing to do with using Spotify on the Edge itself, but it's just about controlling playback on the phone via the Edge. My bad!

CJ_denim said:

it's not possible to send podcast/music playback controls to the Garmin Edge with a simple UI.

Not to state the obvious, but Garmin just doesn't want to do it, same as there's ton of feature requests and bug reports that get ignored over the years. Can't say I blame them, as they've probably realized that releasing new products every six months is actually what makes them money.