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Off topic, but would be nice if they could do something - presumably far simpler - about the lack of fine-grained volume control. It might be a niche case, but

Off topic, but would be nice if they could do something - presumably far simpler - about the lack of fine-grained volume control. It might be a niche case, but it's really frustrating using the various sleep-related audio apps at night with earphones and not being able to select a minimum volume that is both loud enough to hear but not so loud it keeps you awake (example: Audible with a sleep timer). I'm sure there are other uses for the finer control as well.

kwijibob 6y ago
Totally agree. Fine volume control is a pain.
exikyut 6y ago
That sounds involved but 100% doable using synthesized volume limiting in-app. Have you tried pestering Audible? Would probably take a while, but it feels like the kind of thing that would be hard to "un-justify" once you started arguing for it.
- mellosouls 6y ago
  That's a nice idea - there are apps that purport (unsuccessfully in my experience) to work around the issue using software though I don't know they use that approach. Obviously any major app supplier may be reductant to invest significant dev time to offer a workaround for an OS limitation (and Audible is just an example), but yes it's worth raising I suppose, thanks.
  - exikyut 6y ago
    I had a quick poke around to see if it's possible to implement something like audio filtering on Android, and found just about exactly that question asked over at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15385797/hook-simple-audio-filter-to-music-playing-under-android; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15385797/hook-simple-aud... TL;DR no, for obvious (albeit annoying) security reasons. I'm not even sure if it would be straightforward with a rooted device either.
_flux 6y ago
Some vendors, e.g. Samsung, have done some hacks around there, providing more precise audio controls if you drag the audio slider by hand. I don't know if there are any programmatic system-wide ways to do the same (every app can implement it in their software mixer though). I haven't had great experience with third-party solutions that obviously cannot integrate with the OS at the same level.
cout 6y ago
My ears have aged, but when I was younger, I was frustrated that my flip-clock/radio could not go low enough before the volume hit zero. It had an analog volume dial. I had the impression the problem was physical limitations with the dial. With fully digital controls, it seems like this wouldn't be an issue. But obviously you need more than the handful of steps the volume buttons on the side of the phone give you.

kwijibob 6y ago

Totally agree. Fine volume control is a pain.

exikyut 6y ago

That sounds involved but 100% doable using synthesized volume limiting in-app. Have you tried pestering Audible? Would probably take a while, but it feels like the kind of thing that would be hard to "un-justify" once you started arguing for it.

mellosouls 6y ago
That's a nice idea - there are apps that purport (unsuccessfully in my experience) to work around the issue using software though I don't know they use that approach. Obviously any major app supplier may be reductant to invest significant dev time to offer a workaround for an OS limitation (and Audible is just an example), but yes it's worth raising I suppose, thanks.
- exikyut 6y ago
  I had a quick poke around to see if it's possible to implement something like audio filtering on Android, and found just about exactly that question asked over at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15385797/hook-simple-audio-filter-to-music-playing-under-android; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15385797/hook-simple-aud... TL;DR no, for obvious (albeit annoying) security reasons. I'm not even sure if it would be straightforward with a rooted device either.

_flux 6y ago

Some vendors, e.g. Samsung, have done some hacks around there, providing more precise audio controls if you drag the audio slider by hand. I don't know if there are any programmatic system-wide ways to do the same (every app can implement it in their software mixer though). I haven't had great experience with third-party solutions that obviously cannot integrate with the OS at the same level.

cout 6y ago

My ears have aged, but when I was younger, I was frustrated that my flip-clock/radio could not go low enough before the volume hit zero. It had an analog volume dial. I had the impression the problem was physical limitations with the dial. With fully digital controls, it seems like this wouldn't be an issue. But obviously you need more than the handful of steps the volume buttons on the side of the phone give you.