Java Media Interface

Access the operating systems "Media Remote"/Now Playing interface from Java/Kotlin. Works on all modern operating systems.

Features

• Get current system media sessions
• Support for multiple apps playing at the same time
• Query name, album, artist, artwork data, duration and additional metadata
• Get the play head position
• Control playback (play/pause/toggle/next/prev/stop)
• Seek support
• Cross-platform universal interface (one API for all platforms)

Operating system support

Feature	Linux	Windows	macOS
Session discovery (all sessions)	Yes	Yes	No
Control/Query multiple sessions at once	Yes	Yes	No
Active session selection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Session lookup by app name	Yes	Yes	Partial
Playback state read	Yes	Yes	Yes
Now playing: name/album/artist/duration	Yes	Yes	Yes
Now playing: artwork	Yes	Yes	Yes
Now playing: livestream detection	Untested	Untested	Untested
Now playing: additional metadata	Yes	Yes	No
Now playing: position	Yes	Yes	Yes
Now playing: computed position progression	Yes	Yes	Yes
Playback controls: play/pause/toggle/next/prev/stop	Yes	Yes	Yes
Playback controls: seek	Yes	Yes	Yes
Polling: supported	Yes	Yes	Yes
Event driven: supported	Yes	Yes	Yes
Event driven: process system events	No	No	No
Polling: computed position progression	Yes	Yes	Yes
Event driven: computed position progression	Yes	Yes	Yes
Event driven: onPlaybackStateChanged	Yes	Yes	Yes
Event driven: onSessionAdded/Removed	Yes	Yes	No
Event driven: onNowPlayingChanged	Yes	Yes	Yes
Event driven: onSessionActiveChanged	Yes	Yes	Yes
Configurable poll/update intervals	Yes	Yes	Yes

Platform	Supported architecture	Native backend
Linux	N/A	Java DBUS/MPRIS2
Windows	x64, ARM64	JNI (mediainterface_winrt)
macOS	Intel, Apple Silicon	Perl + MediaRemoteAdapter

Quickstart

Use mediainterface-all to get the core API + all platform providers in one dependency.

Replace VERSION_HERE with the Maven Central version shown in the badge above.

Javadocs:

• Core API: https://javadoc.io/doc/org.endlesssource.mediainterface/core
• Linux: https://javadoc.io/doc/org.endlesssource.mediainterface/linux
• Windows: https://javadoc.io/doc/org.endlesssource.mediainterface/windows
• macOS: https://javadoc.io/doc/org.endlesssource.mediainterface/macos

Gradle (Kotlin)

dependencies {
    implementation("org.endlesssource.mediainterface:all:VERSION_HERE")
}

Maven

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.endlesssource.mediainterface</groupId>
  <artifactId>all</artifactId>
  <version>VERSION_HERE</version>
</dependency>

IMPORTANT FOR shadowJar USERS

If you use shadowJar, add this to your Gradle configuration to merge the included service file:

tasks.shadowJar {
    duplicatesStrategy = DuplicatesStrategy.INCLUDE // include all service files
    mergeServiceFiles { // always merge service files
        include("META-INF/services/org.endlesssource.mediainterface.spi.PlatformMediaProvider")
    }
}

Minimal usage

import org.endlesssource.mediainterface.SystemMediaFactory;
import org.endlesssource.mediainterface.api.SystemMediaInterface;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try (SystemMediaInterface media = SystemMediaFactory.createSystemInterface()) {
            media.getActiveSession().ifPresent(session -> {
                System.out.println("App: " + session.getApplicationName());
                session.getNowPlaying().ifPresent(now -> {
                    String title = now.getTitle().orElse("Unknown title");
                    String artist = now.getArtist().orElse("Unknown artist");
                    System.out.println("Now playing: " + title + " - " + artist);
                });
            });
        }
    }
}

More examples

See examples module

License

Java Media Interface is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. (see LICENSE)

Credits

• @TimLohrer for the idea
• mediaremote-adapter for the MediaRemote Perl workaround