[MediaElement] on Android : do we really need all those permissions ?

[Skarzag]

Hi,

I've implemented MediaElement on our app to play local video files.
Everything work as expected by following the documentation.

But with Android 14, Google ask us why do we need FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK.
So i'm asking myself, yes... why do we need that ?

We just want to play the video when the user is watching it, nothing more.

Do we need all those lines in our manifest to handle a simple video playing ?

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MEDIA_CONTENT_CONTROL" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK" />
<application android:allowBackup="false" android:label="Me&amp;MyTBM" android:icon="@mipmap/android_appicon">
	<service android:name="communityToolkit.maui.media.services" android:exported="false" android:enabled="true" android:foregroundServiceType="mediaPlayback">
		<intent-filter>
			<action android:name="android.intent.action.MEDIA_BUTTON" />
		</intent-filter>
		<intent-filter>
			<action android:name="androidx.media3.session.MediaSessionService" />
		</intent-filter>
	</service>

I know that i can simply deactivate those permissions and test it (doing it right now)... but i want to know why this seems mandatory in the tutorial. Also, this can help some other people with the same problem so let's make it public !

Thanks and sorry if my english is clunky

[pictos]

@Skarzag Docs are meant to instruct devs to use all the features. We expect devs to be able to judge which one they need for their app proposals.

[Skarzag]

When using MediaElement it is essential to perform the following steps:
1. Add ResizableActivity and Launchmode to Activity

[Activity(Theme = "@style/Maui.SplashTheme", ResizeableActivity = true, MainLauncher = true, LaunchMode = LaunchMode.SingleTask)]
public class MainActivity : MauiAppCompatActivity
{}

2. Add the following to AndroidManifest.xml inside the <application> tag.

 <service android:name="communityToolkit.maui.media.services" android:exported="false" android:enabled="true" android:foregroundServiceType="mediaPlayback">
   <intent-filter>
     <action android:name="android.intent.action.MEDIA_BUTTON" />
   </intent-filter>
   <intent-filter>
     <action android:name="androidx.media3.session.MediaSessionService"/>
   </intent-filter>
 </service>

3. Add the following permissions to AndroidManifest.xml
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MEDIA_CONTENT_CONTROL" />

So according to the doc, it's mandatory.
There is no details on why it's there and if removing them will eventually break something and crash the app for whatever internal reason.
I'll be happy to judge by myself if details were given in the doc.

[pictos]

I see your point, but I don't have time right now to work on it... But docs are open source, so feel free to change it in the way that you feel that will be better for devs and send a PR