Playing sound on the alarm channel on android

Question

I have done a lot of googling but other's solutions are not working for me.

My goal is to play a sound on demand on the alarm channel.
(So the sound volume is adjusted by the alarm volume setting)

from this thread I build the following code

mediaPlayerScan = MediaPlayer.create(getContext(), R.raw.scan_beep);

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 21) {
  mediaPlayerScan.setAudioAttributes(new AudioAttributes.Builder()
          .setUsage(AudioAttributes.USAGE_ALARM)
          .setContentType(AudioAttributes.CONTENT_TYPE_SONIFICATION)
          .build());
} else {
  mediaPlayerScan.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_ALARM);
}

It still plays on the music channel. (IE volume is adjusted in music setting not alarm)

My intuition is that i'm missing a permission or something, but I haven't found such a permission.

I'm testing on a Google Pixel 1

Thanks,
Nathan

Edit:

Thanks to @jeffery-blattman the following code works for me

mediaPlayerScan = new MediaPlayer();
try {
  mediaPlayerScan.setDataSource(getContext(),
          Uri.parse(getString(R.string.res_path) + R.raw.scan_beep));

  if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 21) {
    mediaPlayerScan.setAudioAttributes(new AudioAttributes.Builder()
            .setUsage(AudioAttributes.USAGE_ALARM)
            .setContentType(AudioAttributes.CONTENT_TYPE_SONIFICATION)
            .build());
  } else {
    mediaPlayerScan.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_ALARM);
  }
  mediaPlayerScan.prepare();
} catch (IOException e) {
  e.printStackTrace();
}

Answer 1

The problem is that create() puts the MediaPlayer in a state where it won't accept the attributes (it calls prepare() for you). You need to use the more verbose mechanism of creating the player.

  final MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
  mediaPlayer.setDataSource(...);

  AudioAttributes attrs = new AudioAttributes.Builder().setUsage(usage).build();
  mediaPlayer.setAudioAttributes(attrs);

  new AsyncTask<Void,Void,Boolean>() {
    @Override
    protected Boolean doInBackground(Void... voids) {
      try {
        mediaPlayer.prepare();
        return true;
      } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
      }
      return false;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Boolean prepared) {
      if (prepared) {
          mediaPlayer.start();
      }
    }
  }.execute();