Enhancement: enable global hotkeys

[jjech]

Currently hotkeys only work when Firefox has the user's focus. Add an option to enable Spotify hotkeys globally so that the user can control Spotify web app even when Firefox is minimized / out of focus.

There is an extension for Chrome with this functionality. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spotify-web-remote-contro/jcaebomgnpplnkgdbgeiifjafbclkiam?hl=en

[jerosa]

Hi, It would be great to have global hotkeys but at the moment Firefox Webextensions can't create global hotkeys and the API is still on development.

One hacky approach is to have a software like AutoHotkey to create the global hotkeys which send the specified keys to the spotify extension.

[jerosa]

Hi @jjech I have just added an .ahk script wich allows to execute the spotify hotkeys globally. Also it's the first AutoHotkey I made and I'm sure it could be improve so feel free to do it.

Just a few notes (guesses):

• The AutoHotkey and Spotify WebExtension hotkeys need to be different. I tried to make them equal for simplicity but couldn't make it work.
• Autohotkey don't like the Shift+Alt modifier so I used Alt+P for the Alf+Shift+P spotify hotkey.

And a reminder, this is an approach that could solve the "problem" until firefox devs implement something.

[jjech]

Apologies for the slow response. The Chrome extension that I referenced in my previous comment prompted me to switch to Brave browser, and I forgot about this.

It's too bad that Firefox can't offer native global hotkey support yet, but I like your workaround in the meantime. AHK is such a versatile and useful tool!

I think we can close this issue now, but if you'd like to keep it open for when the Firefox API supports global hotkeys, I will leave that to your discretion.