Question: I read a good post [here](http://www.binpress.com/tutorial/using-android-media-style-notifications-with-media-session-controls/165) on how to use notification buttons to interact with a mediaplayer service to play, pause, skip etc.

The [android doc](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/session/MediaSessionManager.html) says this was introduced in API level 21, does anyone know the alternatives for this for lower API level? How does this work on lower API level devices?

Answer: 
This is the best answer I've found so far: <https://stackoverflow.com/a/26474423/785716>

It seems that the two methods aren't really backwards compatible at all.
An updated version of [MediaSessionCompat](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/media/session/MediaSessionCompat.html) was recently released that uses RemoteControlClient for APIs levels 14-20. Unfortunately, there is no Compat version of MediaSessionManager at this time.