First of all, it is necessary to say a few words about why attaching additional functions to the hardware keys of a smartphone. The fact is that this is perhaps the only way to perform any action you need without looking at your gadget, that is, by touch or even in your pocket. In addition, there are several actions, such as controlling the cursor on the screen, that are more convenient to perform this way. Below you will find a list of such operations. Please note that some of them will require you to have superuser rights.

Launch the applications you need

QuickClick is a multifunctional utility that is designed to quickly launch applications using the volume keys. In this case, you can use different programs for different sequences of clicks. For example, two presses on the volume rocker will launch the camera, and three presses will launch the flashlight. An important advantage of QuickClick is that it is one of the few programs that does not require root to function.

Wake up your smartphone

This utility will be a real lifeline for those users whose power button is broken or is located on the case so inconveniently that it is difficult for you to use it. The Power Button to Volume Button program is extremely simple and performs only one function: it allows you to wake up the device by pressing the volume rocker. But it is free and does not contain advertising.

Scrolling long pages

In some book readers, scrolling pages using the volume buttons works by default. If you have already gotten used to this wonderful feature and want to use it in other programs, for example in a browser, then for this you will need to install a special Xposed module called XUpDown. What is Xposed and how to make friends with it, you can read in.

Switching tracks

This is one of the most requested hardware button features that will allow you to switch your music player to play the next or previous song. This feature is implemented in several programs, but we recommend that you choose Xposed Additions. Besides music control, this module for Xposed has several additional features that you may find useful. You can read more about Xposed Additions.

Controlling cursor position

This option is useful for those users who work on documents. With its help, you can specify the position of the cursor when entering text much more accurately than poking your fingers on the screen. To activate this feature, we need another multifunctional Xposed module called XBlast Tools. In its depths you will find a huge number of options, but in the context of this article we are only interested in the “Volume Key Tweaks” section. Here you can link the cursor movement to pressing the volume rocker and set its direction.

Secret video recording

Sometimes you may find yourself witnessing a situation that needs to be captured on video, but without anyone noticing. For example, you have witnessed a crime and do not want to attract attention to yourself by blatant filming, or you are interviewing a person who is embarrassed in front of the camera lens. In this case, install the Secret Video Recorder program, which can record video according to your presses on the volume buttons. The device screen will be turned off, and nothing will reveal the fact that recording is currently in progress.

Secret smartphone unlocking

If you want to protect the contents of your device from unauthorized access, you should set an unlock password. However, this password can be seen by strangers when you use the gadget in their presence. An interesting and unexpected solution to this problem comes from the Xposed module Sequence Unlock. With it, you can set a special sequence of presses on the volume buttons, which will unlock the device. For example, three presses on the increase button, followed by one on the volume down button. It is very difficult to peep and record the movements of your finger, and the utility disables the standard unlocking method via the power button.

First of all, it is necessary to say a few words about why attaching additional functions to the hardware keys of a smartphone. The fact is that this is perhaps the only way to perform any action you need without looking at your gadget, that is, by touch or even in your pocket. In addition, there are several actions, such as controlling the cursor on the screen, that are more convenient to perform this way. Below you will find a list of such operations. Please note that some of them will require you to have superuser rights.

Launch the applications you need

QuickClick is a multifunctional utility that is designed to quickly launch applications using the volume keys. In this case, you can use different programs for different sequences of clicks. For example, two presses on the volume rocker will launch the camera, and three presses will launch the flashlight. An important advantage of QuickClick is that it is one of the few programs that does not require root to function.

Wake up your smartphone

This utility will be a real lifeline for those users whose power button is broken or is located on the case so inconveniently that it is difficult for you to use it. The Power Button to Volume Button program is extremely simple and performs only one function: it allows you to wake up the device by pressing the volume rocker. But it is free and does not contain advertising.

Scrolling long pages

In some book readers, scrolling pages using the volume buttons works by default. If you have already gotten used to this wonderful feature and want to use it in other programs, for example in a browser, then for this you will need to install a special Xposed module called XUpDown. What is Xposed and how to make friends with it, you can read in.

Switching tracks

This is one of the most requested hardware button features that will allow you to switch your music player to play the next or previous song. This feature is implemented in several programs, but we recommend that you choose Xposed Additions. Besides music control, this module for Xposed has several additional features that you may find useful. You can read more about Xposed Additions.

Controlling cursor position

This option is useful for those users who work on documents. With its help, you can specify the position of the cursor when entering text much more accurately than poking your fingers on the screen. To activate this feature, we need another multifunctional Xposed module called XBlast Tools. In its depths you will find a huge number of options, but in the context of this article we are only interested in the “Volume Key Tweaks” section. Here you can link the cursor movement to pressing the volume rocker and set its direction.

Secret video recording

Sometimes you may find yourself witnessing a situation that needs to be captured on video, but without anyone noticing. For example, you have witnessed a crime and do not want to attract attention to yourself by blatant filming, or you are interviewing a person who is embarrassed in front of the camera lens. In this case, install the Secret Video Recorder program, which can record video according to your presses on the volume buttons. The device screen will be turned off, and nothing will reveal the fact that recording is currently in progress.

Secret smartphone unlocking

If you want to protect the contents of your device from unauthorized access, you should set an unlock password. However, this password can be seen by strangers when you use the gadget in their presence. An interesting and unexpected solution to this problem comes from the Xposed module Sequence Unlock. With it, you can set a special sequence of presses on the volume buttons, which will unlock the device. For example, three presses on the increase button, followed by one on the volume down button. It is very difficult to peep and record the movements of your finger, and the utility disables the standard unlocking method via the power button.

This article talks about wired headsets working with OS-based devices Android.
A headset is headphones with a microphone.

Headsets with one button

A one-button headset is so simple that almost any modern androphone is compatible with any one-button headset. The exception is headsets “for old Nokias” due to the fact that they are wired according to the “old” standard, but you still need to look for them.

The remote control of the one-button headset contains a microphone, a capacitor and a short circuit button. All of them are wired parallel to each other and connected to pins No. 3 and No. 4 of the TRRS plug ▼

When you press the button, the microphone is bypassed and the resistance between pins 3-4 drops to zero. By this sign, the smartphone understands that a button has been pressed. The capacitor serves to smooth out the click that occurs when the button is pressed. In addition, it is by the presence of a capacitor that some smartphones determine that a headset is connected to them.

The main functions of the button are to accept a call, end a call and enable voice search. Voice search is called by holding the button until a characteristic signal appears - “OK Google beep” ▼

When playing audio or video, the button functions as a pause. By the way, when recording on a dictaphone too.

You can expand the capabilities of the button, such as double pressing to go to the next track, triple pressing to the previous one. There are special applications for this - look for them on Google Play using a query like “headset button control”. In addition, some players allow you to customize the functionality of the headset button, for example “Dream Player”.

Headsets with three or more buttons

More sophisticated headsets allow you to adjust the volume and skip tracks forward/backward. This or that function is triggered by setting a certain resistance between pins 3-4 of the TRRS plug ▼

And here everything is not as simple as with a one-button headset. As usual, there are two troubles:

There is no single standard for the value of these resistors! Why is there no full compatibility of three-button headsets with various models of smartphones. Each manufacturer has its own resistances. Although, there is one trying to reconcile everyone.

The smartphone is not required to carry out all sound control commands. Samsung, for example, can without any software He can’t change the volume on command from the headset, but he can’t switch tracks. And some Fly models are not controlled by resistance at all.

That is, the three-button HTC headset will, of course, reproduce sound from Samsung and the microphone will work. But switching tracks will not work, although there are rewind buttons on the remote control. The only thing that works with all smartphones is the Play/Pause button. It simply closes contacts 3-4 of the TRRS plug.

Of course, with androphones does not work media buttons on an iPhone headset.

Xiaomi, Nexus One

Xiaomi And Nexus One On command from the remote control they switch tracks. The resistor values ​​correspond to the information distributed on the Internet about the supposedly standard set of resistances for Android smartphones. In fact, not all androphones support this “standard”.

Pause ⏸ - 0 Ω
Previous track ⏪ - 220 Ω
Next track ⏩ - 600 Ω

HTC Desire

Budget model HTC Desire controls volume. For comparison, I note that HTC Sensation XE controls track switching.

Just about 7 years ago we listened to music on MP3 players. Most of them were compact devices with mechanical buttons. The convenience of the players was that they could be controlled almost by touch. Today, MP3 players have been replaced by smartphones with touch screens and no buttons. Gadgets have become bulky, and the process of listening to music has lost its intuitive mechanical control. Of course, there are various headsets with buttons for this, but what should those who have regular headphones do? In this article we will talk about special applications that will make listening to music on your smartphone much more practical.

How to control music using gestures

We carry out most of our active actions on a smartphone using gestures. It's convenient and saves a lot of time. When listening to music in the application, we use the simplest gesture - swipe to the side to switch tracks. Everyone supports it, but in most cases it is the only gesture to control playback. But it would be nice to add other gestures here, for example, for pausing and adjusting the volume, as is implemented in . They would definitely be useful in cases where it is not always convenient to control a smartphone.

A rather interesting approach to controlling music using gestures is offered by the Audio Swipe application. This utility acts as an independent player with basic capabilities for playing audio files. The application scans your local media library and sorts it by artist, album or folder. The player supports playlists and playback queue management.

The main purpose of Audio Swipe is to add gestures to music control. For example, you can switch songs by swiping to the side, swiping up or down adjusts the volume, and tapping anywhere on the screen pauses playback. All these gestures work until the device is locked.

The utility works with almost any music application, including streaming audio service clients - Spotify, Google Play Music, Apple Music and others. To control another player, you need to activate the Control Media Player option in the program settings, then go to the appropriate section and select the running application. After this, the utility takes control of the music.

Since Audio Swipe prevents the screen from turning off and, accordingly, the smartphone going to sleep, the developers took care of energy saving of the device and added a very useful “Dark Full Screen” function. This feature turns black on full screen and is activated manually by long pressing anywhere on the screen. In this case, the phone is not blocked and remains in active mode. In addition, the application also has a sleep timer that turns off the music and pauses the utility at a specified time.

Overall, Audio Swipe does its job well. The only significant drawback is the limit of 200 gestures in the free version of the program. But there is a little trick here - just erase the application data and you can use it again for free.

How to control music using volume buttons

This method of controlling music may be useful when traveling on public transport or playing sports. It will be especially useful for those who are used to frequently switching tracks in the player. To avoid constantly taking your smartphone out of your pocket, waking up the device and draining the battery unnecessarily, you can use the Frinky Music Controller application.

Frinky Music Controller allows you to switch tracks using hardware volume buttons, and at the same time they continue to perform their main function - adjusting the volume of the sound on the phone. The utility starts automatically as a service and runs when the device is in sleep mode. The application supports more than 200 music players for Android.

Frinky Music Controller assigns actions to the volume buttons as follows:

• a single press on “volume up” turns on the next track;
• a single press on “volume down” turns on the previous track;
• Double-clicking the buttons adjusts the volume in standard mode;
• Double tapping "volume up" and double tapping "volume down" stops playback.

There are two methods of operation of the utility: main and alternative. It is worth trying both methods if the application does not respond to pressing the volume buttons. On my device, the Frinky Music Controller worked without problems with any selected method.

Frinky Music Controller provides the ability to activate a so-called trigger. This is a kind of quick switch that allows you to enable or disable an application action at any time. For example, if you are listening to music and want to prevent pressing the volume buttons from switching tracks, then hold them down at the same time and the utility will pause. Among the additional functions, the program also has a sleep timer.

The developers warn that the application may not respond to button presses at maximum volume on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and on some smartphones the running Frinky Music Controller process may be unloaded in sleep mode. Personally, the utility only worked for me when I launched it manually before the music. Otherwise there were no problems. The only thing that could perhaps be improved is to reduce the delay when pressing the volume buttons.

Frinky Music Controller is free, but there is also a paid version of the application. It differs only in one function, which allows the utility to work when the screen is on.

We've shared with you several ways to enhance music control on your Android device. Of course, there are many other options. For example, some smartphone manufacturers include system-level gesture support for playback control, like Meizu's Flyme. A similar implementation can be found in certain launchers. Write in the comments how you usually listen to music on your smartphone.