Add Advanced Features To Your Android App

Ad Breaks

The Android Sender SDK provides support for Ad Breaks and companion ads within a given media stream.

See the Web Receiver Ad Breaks Overview for more information on how Ad Breaks work.

While breaks can be specified on both the sender and receiver, it is recommended for them to be specified on the Web Receiver and Android TV Receiver to maintain consistent behavior across platforms.

On Android, specify ad breaks in a load command using AdBreakClipInfo and AdBreakInfo:

Kotlin

val breakClip1: AdBreakClipInfo =
    AdBreakClipInfo.Builder("bc0")
        .setTitle("Clip title")
        .setPosterUrl("https://www.some.url")
        .setDuration(60000)
        .setWhenSkippableInMs(5000)  // Set this field so that the ad is skippable
        .build()

val breakClip2: AdBreakClipInfo = …
val breakClip3: AdBreakClipInfo = …

val break1: AdBreakClipInfo =
    AdBreakInfo.Builder(/* playbackPositionInMs= */ 10000)
        .setId("b0")
        .setBreakClipIds({"bc0","bc1","bc2"})
        …
        .build()

val mediaInfo: MediaInfo = MediaInfo.Builder()
    …
    .setAdBreaks({break1})
    .setAdBreakClips({breakClip1, breakClip2, breakClip3})
    .build()

val mediaLoadRequestData: MediaLoadRequestData = MediaInfo.Builder()
    …
    .setMediaInfo(mediaInfo)
    .build()

remoteMediaClient.load(mediaLoadRequestData)

Java

AdBreakClipInfo breakClip1 =
    new AdBreakClipInfo.Builder("bc0")
        .setTitle("Clip title")
        .setPosterUrl("https://www.some.url")
        .setDuration(60000)
        .setWhenSkippableInMs(5000)  // Set this field so that the ad is skippable
        .build();

AdBreakClipInfo breakClip2 = …
AdBreakClipInfo breakClip3 = …

AdBreakInfo break1 =
    new AdBreakInfo.Builder(/* playbackPositionInMs= */ 10000)
        .setId("b0")
        .setBreakClipIds({"bc0","bc1","bc2"})
        …
        .build();

MediaInfo mediaInfo = new MediaInfo.Builder()
    …
    .setAdBreaks({break1})
    .setAdBreakClips({breakClip1, breakClip2, breakClip3})
    .build();

MediaLoadRequestData mediaLoadRequestData = new MediaInfo.Builder()
    …
    .setMediaInfo(mediaInfo)
    .build();

remoteMediaClient.load(mediaLoadRequestData);

Add custom actions

A sender app can extend MediaIntentReceiver to handle custom actions or override its behavior. If you have implemented your own MediaIntentReceiver, you need to add it to the manifest, and also set its name in the CastMediaOptions. This example provides custom actions that override toggle remote media playback, pressing the media button and other types of actions.

// In AndroidManifest.xml
<receiver android:name="com.example.MyMediaIntentReceiver" />

Kotlin

// In your OptionsProvider
var mediaOptions = CastMediaOptions.Builder()
    .setMediaIntentReceiverClassName(MyMediaIntentReceiver::class.java.name)
    .build()

// Implementation of MyMediaIntentReceiver
internal class MyMediaIntentReceiver : MediaIntentReceiver() {
    override fun onReceiveActionTogglePlayback(currentSession: Session) {
    }

    override fun onReceiveActionMediaButton(currentSession: Session, intent: Intent) {
    }

    override fun onReceiveOtherAction(context: Context?, action: String, intent: Intent) {
    }
}

Java

// In your OptionsProvider
CastMediaOptions mediaOptions = new CastMediaOptions.Builder()
        .setMediaIntentReceiverClassName(MyMediaIntentReceiver.class.getName())
        .build();

// Implementation of MyMediaIntentReceiver
class MyMediaIntentReceiver extends MediaIntentReceiver {
    @Override
    protected void onReceiveActionTogglePlayback(Session currentSession) {
    }

    @Override
    protected void onReceiveActionMediaButton(Session currentSession, Intent intent) {
    }

    @Override
    protected void onReceiveOtherAction(Context context, String action, Intent intent) {
    }
}

Add a custom channel

For the sender app to communicate with the receiver app, your app needs to create a custom channel. The sender can use the custom channel to send string messages to the receiver. Each custom channel is defined by a unique namespace and must start with the prefix urn:x-cast:, for example, urn:x-cast:com.example.custom. It is possible to have multiple custom channels, each with a unique namespace. The receiver app can also send and receive messages using the same namespace.

The custom channel is implemented with the Cast.MessageReceivedCallback interface:

Kotlin

class HelloWorldChannel : MessageReceivedCallback {
    val namespace: String
        get() = "urn:x-cast:com.example.custom"

    override fun onMessageReceived(castDevice: CastDevice, namespace: String, message: String) {
        Log.d(TAG, "onMessageReceived: $message")
    }
}

Java

class HelloWorldChannel implements Cast.MessageReceivedCallback {
    public String getNamespace() {
        return "urn:x-cast:com.example.custom";
    }
    @Override
    public void onMessageReceived(CastDevice castDevice, String namespace, String message) {
        Log.d(TAG, "onMessageReceived: " + message);
    }
}

Once the sender app is connected to the receiver app, the custom channel can be created using the setMessageReceivedCallbacks method:

Kotlin

try {
    mCastSession.setMessageReceivedCallbacks(
        mHelloWorldChannel.namespace,
        mHelloWorldChannel)
} catch (e: IOException) {
    Log.e(TAG, "Exception while creating channel", e)
}

Java

try {
    mCastSession.setMessageReceivedCallbacks(
            mHelloWorldChannel.getNamespace(),
            mHelloWorldChannel);
} catch (IOException e) {
    Log.e(TAG, "Exception while creating channel", e);
}

Once the custom channel is created, the sender can use the sendMessage method to send string messages to the receiver over that channel:

Kotlin

private fun sendMessage(message: String) {
    if (mHelloWorldChannel != null) {
        try {
            mCastSession.sendMessage(mHelloWorldChannel.namespace, message)
                .setResultCallback { status ->
                    if (!status.isSuccess) {
                        Log.e(TAG, "Sending message failed")
                    }
                }
        } catch (e: Exception) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Exception while sending message", e)
        }
    }
}

Java

private void sendMessage(String message) {
    if (mHelloWorldChannel != null) {
        try {
            mCastSession.sendMessage(mHelloWorldChannel.getNamespace(), message)
                .setResultCallback( status -> {
                    if (!status.isSuccess()) {
                        Log.e(TAG, "Sending message failed");
                    }
                });
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Exception while sending message", e);
        }
    }
}

Supporting autoplay

See the section Autoplay & Queueing APIs.

Override image selection for UX widgets

Various components of the framework (namely the Cast dialog, the mini controller, and the UIMediaController, if so configured) will display artwork for the currently casting media. The URLs to the image artwork are typically included in the MediaMetadata for the media, but the sender app may have an alternate source for the URLs.

The ImagePicker class defines a means for selecting an appropriate image from the list of images in a MediaMetadata, based on the use of the image, for example, notification thumbnail or full screen background. The default ImagePicker implementation always chooses the first image, or returns null if no image is available in the MediaMetadata. Your app can subclass ImagePicker and override the onPickImage(MediaMetadata, ImageHints) method to provide an alternate implementation, and then select that subclass with the setImagePicker method of CastMediaOptions.Builder. ImageHints provides hints to an ImagePicker about the type and size of an image to be selected for display in the UI.

Customizing Cast dialogs

Managing Session Lifecycle

SessionManager is the central place for managing session lifecycle. SessionManager listens to Android MediaRouter route selection state changes to start, resume and end sessions. When a route is selected, SessionManager will create a Session object and tries to start or resume it. When a route is unselected, SessionManager will end the current session.

Therefore, to ensure SessionManager manages session lifecycles properly, you must make sure that:

In the route selector dialog, call MediaRouter.selectRoute(MediaRouter.RouteInfo) when a user selects a device.
In the route controller dialog (either in connected state or casting state), call MediaRouter.unselect(int) when the user stops casting.

Depending on how you create the Cast dialogs, additional actions may need to be done:

If you create Cast dialogs using MediaRouteChooserDialog and MediaRouteControllerDialog, then these dialogs will update route selection in MediaRouter automatically, so nothing needs to be done.
If you set up your Cast button using CastButtonFactory.setUpMediaRouteButton(Context, Menu, int) or CastButtonFactory.setUpMediaRouteButton(Context, MediaRouteButton), then the dialogs are actually created using MediaRouteChooserDialog and MediaRouteControllerDialog, so nothing needs to be done, too.
For other cases, you will be creating custom Cast dialogs, so you need to follow the above instructions to update the route selection state in MediaRouter.

Zero Devices State

If you create custom Cast dialogs, your custom MediaRouteChooserDialog should properly handle the case of zero devices being found. The dialog should have indicators making it clear to your users when your app is still attempting to find devices and when the discovery attempt is no longer active.

If you are using the default MediaRouteChooserDialog, the zero devices state is already handled.

Next steps

This concludes the features that you can add to your Android Sender app. You can now build a sender app for another platform (iOS or Web), or build a Web Receiver app.

Output Switcher

ExoPlayer Integration