Hardware Button Events/Intents (PTT, LWP, etc.)

Introduction#

Several android devices have custom buttons added by the manufacturer. This opens new possibilities for the developer in handling those buttons especially when making Apps targeted for Hardware Devices.

This topic documents buttons which have intents attached to them which you can listen for via intent-receivers.

Sonim Devices

Sonim devices have varying by model a lot of different custom buttons:

PTT_KEY

com.sonim.intent.action.PTT_KEY_DOWN
com.sonim.intent.action.PTT_KEY_UP

YELLOW_KEY

com.sonim.intent.action.YELLOW_KEY_DOWN
com.sonim.intent.action.YELLOW_KEY_UP

SOS_KEY

com.sonim.intent.action.SOS_KEY_DOWN
com.sonim.intent.action.SOS_KEY_UP

GREEN_KEY

com.sonim.intent.action.GREEN_KEY_DOWN
com.sonim.intent.action.GREEN_KEY_UP

Registering the buttons

To receive those intents you will have to assign the buttons to your app in the Phone-Settings. Sonim has a possibilty to auto-register the buttons to the App when it is installed. In order to do that you will have to contact them and get a package-specific key to include in your Manifest like this:

<meta-data
    android:name="app_key_green_data"
    android:value="your-key-here" />

RugGear Devices

PTT Button

android.intent.action.PTT.down
android.intent.action.PTT.up

Confirmed on: RG730, RG740A