How to get bluetooth headphone buttons to control playback apps?

[wrench]

I have a set of Sony MDRZX550BN bluetooth headphones. The headphones have a play/pause button and sliders for FFWD and RWD. The headphones pair fine with my Samsung Galaxy S4 running Android 4.4.2 and music plays fine. But I cannot get the buttons to work with any app, including the stock music player, Google Play Music, Spotify, or BeyondPod.

I tried looking for an app that would work with bluetooth headsets and pass the control inputs to a music app, but it seems all those apps are designed for wired headsets.

Any suggestions?

 

[twister6]

That is very strange, they support a standard BT protocol so it should control the playback of at least Sammy stock music player and YT. Do you have any other BT headsets to confirm they are working with your phone? Maybe there is something wrong with your BT setting? I remember back in the days of my Note 2, after they had a major Android OS update my BT stopped working, and I had to do a factory reset to fix it. I know, it could be a PITA to do a factory reset, but that's the only thing that fixed it. But in that case I had issues with every BT headset, not just one. So try it out with a few other wireless headsets. If all of them have issue with playback control (that's how it was with my Note 2 after update), you will need to do factory reset of S4 (and make sure to back everything up because you will have to restore everything back). If it only a problem with this particular headset - that's a culprit.

 

[wrench]

Thanks. I did buy the headphones used, so it may very well be an issue with this particular set of headphones.

Forgot to mention, the call answer/call terminate button works fine. Issue is only with the play/pause and ffwd and rwd slider.