How To: Get Quick-Access Pandora Controls in the Notification Tray of Your Galaxy Note 3

According to a recent survey conducted by Edison Research and Statista, Pandora still has a firm grasp as the most popular music streaming service in the United States. With iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, and even Spotify trailing behind by a large margin, it doesn't look like Pandora will lose their footing in the near future.

While Pandora has consistently rolled out new updates that improve their application, making it increasingly more popular as they add labels, artists, and countries in which the service operates, there's one important feature that they have persistently neglected to touch—music controls in the notification shade.

Most likely, this feature remains unseen because having to go into the Pandora app to do simple things like change tracks or give a thumbs up means that you'll likely see an ad or two, which lines Pandora's pockets. Now, thanks to popular Android developer MohammadAG, you can enable music controls and album covers from Pandora right in the notification tray.

Step 1: Prerequisites

Since this app is not available on Google Play and needs root permissions to work, you'll need to have the following three things taken care of on your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (or other Android device).

• Root access
• Xposed Framework
• Unknown Sources enabled

Step 2: Install Force Pandora Rich Notification

Download Force Pandora Rich Notification through the Modules section of Xposed Framework, or get the APK directly from the Xposed Module Repository.

After the module has been downloaded and installed, activate it and reboot your device.

Step 3: Open Pandora

Now when you play a song from Pandora, it will appear as a truly "rich" notification, complete with album cover, and thumbs up/down, play/pause, and next buttons, as opposed to the bare notification we're accustomed to in the notification drawer.

Now, there's no need to exit the app you're in and open Pandora just to change tracks or like/dislike a track—simply pull down your notification drawer, do your thing, and get back to business.