Android MP3 player with LARGE controls

In My Humble Opinion
1

I use my android phone on a vent-mount to listen to podcasts and music while driving. Even mounted right next to my steering wheel, it’s slightly dangerous to have to pay enough attention to the phone to precisely hit tiny buttons, so I’m looking for a better player with the following features:

  1. LARGE control buttons. I want them to occupy almost the entire screen. I’ll rotate the phone to horizontal if I have to get a nice screen full of huge buttons but even better would be for it to fill up the screen real estate vertically when the phone is turned that way.

  2. Main buttons while it’s in large button playing mode must be: Play/Pause, Next Track, Previous Track, Shuffle on/off. Small volume and/or track seek sliders would be nice but not critical.

  3. Automatically reduce playing volume whenever another app sounds off. (navigation, alarm clock, phone rings, I get a text or email, etc.)

  4. Straightforward to add entire folder trees to its current playlist without futzing with M3U files. The controls for manipulating the list don’t need to be huge or even present while in playmode since I never worry about that while moving.

  5. Memory of what tracks it’s played so while in shuffle mode the “previous track” will go back to what it picked before.

6: An obvious button/control area on the screen to switch between big-button and other control modes. It doesn’t have to be a big button and I’d prefer it not be. I want as much screen real estate possible devoted to the four I listed above.

7: If I miss a button and hit somewhere else on its screen it should do nothing, or pausing the file would be fine.

8: Low CPU usage that doesn’t cause the phone to heat up too much.

That’s all I can think of but I’m sure there’s something else.

I currently have two favored players on my phone, both of which have almost but not quite my desired feature set:

Folder Player

Its issues: Tiny controls, very hard to hit them precisely while driving. If I miss a button by even a tiny amount, the player will do something unintended. Other than that, it’s just about the most perfect player I’ve ever tried.

Music Player for Pad/Phone This is the only music app I’ve found at all that can have large buttons. This one in particular has a resizable UI.

Its issues: Even though I can resize the buttons to be quite large, there’s no mode where they’re using all or even most of the available screen real estate. Phone heats up significantly, even if it’s the only active app. It heats up a LOT if I use it while also navigating with Google Maps. It won’t reduce volume when Google Maps says anything. I don’t remember if it will reduce volume for other things. The controls for changing modes are flaky and a bit obtuse, and act slowly. The shuffle on/off button hides itself for no apparent reason. As with Folder Player, if I miss the button I was aiming for and hit a blank area, it’s likely to do something unintended.

2

Best one I’ve found is Music Folder Player. IIRC you can define gestures for some of the controls as well.

3

One possibility:

  1. Use the app that does what you want but has tiny buttons.

  2. Get Tasker, an excellent automation tool to make your phone do all kinds of stuff.

  3. Make a new page of your home screen, with no icons on it.

  4. Create large Tasker widgets on that screen, that will act like buttons to manipulate your app in the ways you want.
    Tasker is hairy to get accustomed to, but it actually works and does what it’s supposed to do.

4

Oops, sorry, I missed the replies! I thought this thread had died with no interest.

I just installed the linked Music Folder Player. I’ll give it a try, although a quick perusal of its page showed no screenshot with large buttons like I want. I’ve tried other apps that use gestures and I’m horrible at being consistent enough with them, and that’s just when I’m sitting still concentrating on the phone. I want huge easy to see and touch buttons.

DavidwithanR, you didn’t provide a link or enough details to absolutely verify it, but is this app the “Tasker” to which you are referring? I’ve learned to be wary of apps with similar names, and this one costs a bit of money. Not much, so I’ll throw the money at it if you confirm that’s the one you’re recommending.

5

That does look like the correct tasker. Be aware before you buy it, that it’s not simple to use. It requires some programming style thinking to setup tasks, so if that doesn’t sound like something you’d like, then it might not be right for you. It is very powerful though. For example, I have it turn my phone’s volume to maximum when I connect to the car bluetooth, but not to my bluetooth headphones.
You should also look at android auto, and music players compatible with it. This is related to, but different, than the android auto which makes your phone interface appear on your car’s screen. In this capacity, it puts your phone into a very simple interface for controlling the maps and music. You’ll have to use an android auto compatible music player, but when you do there are large buttons for play/pause and next/previous track.

6

Yes, that is the app I meant. And I agree with echoreply that it is not easy to use. It would be easy to get frustrated and give up, the first time you try to get it to do something.