Need bluetooth media player remote

[ultrarunner]

Hi;
I am looking for a good quality bluetooth device that will function as a remote for Android (7.0) apps such as audiobook readers and music players to allow start, stop, pause and volume control. The device needs to be a keychain or wearable.

I have tried one such keychain device purchased on Amazon for about $5, which worked pretty well with most apps, but failed after only a month or so. It was graciously replaced by the seller, but the replacement failed in a couple of months as well.
Although the device did work most of the time, it did not work every time, which soon became a source of frustration.
So I'm looking for a device that will last a while, and work consistently.

I suppose I could purchase an Android wearable that would work with my phone, but I don't want to spend $100 or more. Matter of fact, I don't want to spend more than about $23-30. At the same time, I am hesitant to try another $5 device which I know will just fail after a short time, if it works to begin with.

The apps I need the device to work with run on my Android 7 phone, an LG Fiesta 2 (Tracfone).
Specifically, the apps are PowerAmp and Listen Audiobook player.

Thanks for your help
Ultrarunner

 

[pkcable]

Wouldn't Google Assistant, built in to your phone handle this?

 

[ultrarunner]

No, because my headset doesn't have a mic. I am using Koss PortaPro headphones.
My phone is located on my belt encased in a hard case, and I need to pull it off my belt, then slide the phone out of the case in order to talk, so if GA would work the controls of the audio player, I would still need to have the phone in my hand, and that is what I am trying to get around.

I just had an idea of using a bluetooth earpiece. perhaps if I 'answered' the phone while listening to audio, it would cause it to pause, even though there was no phone call. If that wouldn't work, perhaps there is a method I could use to re-task the bluetooth earpiece to perform that function.
I thought I had a bluetooth earpiece to experiment with, but it no longer works.

 

[Rukbat]

Are you sure that it wasn't just the batteries that went dead in those devices? They don't have much capacity and if you use one regularly you could easily kill the battery in a couple of months. (Bluetooth is a radio transmitter, and that has to draw more power than the little lithium button cell most of them use.) Of course, at almost $1 apiece, that's a pretty bad choice of battery to use - they should use a rechargeable wearable battery. But for $5, what can you expect? https://www.amazon.com/iSimple-Port...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU6685234 may be a better choice (if a bit larger than a key) - it's rechargeable.