Android "O" (Oreo, 8) and higher media buttons issue

The code for handling media buttons from headsets that I use in my Text-to-Speech app works great under Android API 22 through 25 (in older versions of Android they are handled by other, now depreciated means). However under Android 8 "Oreo", both public beta and final release, it does not work. Here is the relevant code:

When the service starts, I create MediaSessionCompact object:

        mSession = new MediaSessionCompat(getApplicationContext(), "my.package.name._player_session");
        mSession.setFlags(MediaSessionCompat.FLAG_HANDLES_MEDIA_BUTTONS | MediaSessionCompat.FLAG_HANDLES_TRANSPORT_CONTROLS);
        mSession.setActive(true);
        mSession.setCallback(myMediaSessionCallback);
        PlaybackStateCompat state = new PlaybackStateCompat.Builder()
                .setActions(ACTION_PLAY_PAUSE | ACTION_PLAY | ACTION_PAUSE |
                        ACTION_SKIP_TO_NEXT | ACTION_SKIP_TO_PREVIOUS |
                        ACTION_FAST_FORWARD | ACTION_REWIND
                )
                .setState(PlaybackStateCompat.STATE_PAUSED, 0 /*PlaybackStateCompat.PLAYBACK_POSITION_UNKNOWN*/, 1f)
                .build();
        mSession.setPlaybackState(state);

There is of course session media callback defined:

private MediaSessionCompat.Callback myMediaSessionCallback = new MediaSessionCompat.Callback() {
    @Override
    public boolean onMediaButtonEvent(Intent mediaButtonIntent) {
        // The log output below never appears on "Oreo", nothing comes here.
        Log.d(TAG, "callback onMediaButtonEvent() Compat");
        MediaButtonIntentReceiver.handleIntent(mediaButtonIntent.getAction(), (KeyEvent) mediaButtonIntent.getParcelableExtra(Intent.EXTRA_KEY_EVENT));
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public void onSkipToNext() {
        //...
    }
    // etc. other overrides
};

I also experimented with PendingIntent, using MediaButtonReceiver.buildMediaButtonPendingIntent() and set mSession.setMediaButtonReceiver(pendingIntent) for all the actions I'm interested in, then in my service onStartCommand() I call MediaButtonReceiver.handleIntent(mSession, intent):

// still in the same service:            
mSession.setMediaButtonReceiver(
            MediaButtonReceiver.buildMediaButtonPendingIntent(
                this,
                mMediaButtonReceiverComponentName,
                ACTION_PLAY));


mSession.setMediaButtonReceiver(
            MediaButtonReceiver.buildMediaButtonPendingIntent(
                this,
                mMediaButtonReceiverComponentName,
                ACTION_PAUSE));


mSession.setMediaButtonReceiver(
            MediaButtonReceiver.buildMediaButtonPendingIntent(
                this,
                mMediaButtonReceiverComponentName,
                ACTION_PLAY_PAUSE));

and in the service onStartCommand():

@Override 
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
    // ...
    if (intent != null) {
        MediaButtonReceiver.handleIntent(mSession, intent);
        // ...
    }
    return START_NOT_STICKY;
}

Nothing, it's completely dumb to media buttons press events. What's wrong with "O" or my code there??? I'm completely baffled.

Update 8/32/2017

I also created a trivial but working app project that demonstrates the problem, please see: https://github.com/gregko/PlayerServiceSample. This project displays LogCat output when a media button is pressed on a headset under Android 5.x to 7.x, but fails completely under Android 8 "Oreo".

Update 9/1/2017 There is now an open issue on Android Issue Tracker about this, which I submitted, at https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/65175978. Still the media buttons work in several music player apps I tested on Oreo, I just can't figure out what do they do differently to make them work... The context of my app is not playing music, but reading aloud text with Text to Speech service, so a lot of code from Music Player examples does not apply.

Solved. On "Android 8.0 Behavior Changes" Google page we find this text:

In Android 8.0 (API level 26) the handling of media button events is different:

The handling of media buttons in a UI activity has not changed: foreground activities still get priority in handling media button events.

If the foreground activity does not handle the media button event, the system routes the event to the app that most recently played audio locally. The active status, flags, and playback state of a media session are not considered when determining which app receives media button events.

If the app's media session has been released, the system sends the media button event to the app's MediaButtonReceiver if it has one.

For every other case, the system discards the media button event.

All I had to do to make my trivial sample work was to play some sound with MediaPlayer. Apparently playing sound with Text-to-Speech API does not qualify, which in my opinion is a bug.

Here is the code I added to my trivial sample to make it work, playing a very brief and silent WAV file from Raw resources directory:

    final MediaPlayer mMediaPlayer;
    mMediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.silent_sound);
    mMediaPlayer.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
        @Override
        public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mediaPlayer) {
            mMediaPlayer.release();
        }
    });
    mMediaPlayer.start();

Update

Submitted the bug report to Android issue tracker at https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/65344811

Update 2, Oct. 10, 2017

Google now says that Oreo behavior in this respect is "by design" and won't fix it. Read the reply near the end of the issue tracker post above. I must say I'm disappointed.

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