Audio "focus" discussion

[Angrey]

I like to play music from Youtube many times when I'm driving.

You've probably experienced the phenomenon where you're playing a youtube song or video through a bluetooth speaker or device and the sound momentarily cuts lower if you receive a notification on your phone (which could be anything from a text message to a messenger message to an email, alerts, etc).

It's a bit annoying when you're cruising and the music cuts low intermittently when you receive an email or notification.

After a little digging, I discovered this is referred to as "audio focus" and it's how the operating system gives priority to applications when more than one sound is needed. Apparently, in the past, Android left it up to the application developers to take and give audio focus back, but now it's managed by the phone.

So what's the solution to this problem?

1) Play music from a different source.
2) Learn to live with it.
3) Go through the hassle of changing your notification settings each time you enter and leave the car.
4) Do some deep tech/geek dive and change the audio focus so that it doesn't interrupt while you're listening to music.

Manage audio focus | Android Developers

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[Cathul]

ad 3... you can do that with automations in iOS.
Whenever you connect to your SYNC via bluetooth you can run an automation that sets things differently for this special connection. Try it out.

Example: https://www.peerreviewed.io/blog/st...playing-apple-music-with-shortcuts-automation

 

[Angrey]

ad 3... you can do that with automations in iOS.
Whenever you connect to your SYNC via bluetooth you can run an automation that sets things differently for this special connection. Try it out.

Example: https://www.peerreviewed.io/blog/st...playing-apple-music-with-shortcuts-automation

My work phone is an Iphone but my personal cell is android so I'm wondering if there's a way to address it with android.

 

[Cathul]

No idea. I have no clue about Android phones.

 

[Evolvd]

You could set your phone to “do not disturb” while driving.

 

[GeneraL]

Try putting your phone in vibrate, the sound should not come up.

 

[Vlad Soare]

) Play music from a different source.
2) Learn to live with it.
3) Go through the hassle of changing your notification settings each time you enter and leave the car.
4) Do some deep tech/geek dive and change the audio focus so that it doesn't interrupt while you're listening to music.

On Android it's easy. Just use an automation tool. There are literally hundreds of them. The best known is Tasker, but that's extremely powerful and complex, and a bit overkill in most cases. You can easily create an automation like "when the phone connects to the car via bluetooth, turn the notification sounds off", then another automation to turn them back on when it disconnects, etc.
Back when I had an Android phone I used an app called AutomateIt. It was free and very user-friendly.

 

[Angrey]

On Android it's easy. Just use an automation tool. There are literally hundreds of them. The best known is Tasker, but that's extremely powerful and complex, and a bit overkill in most cases. You can easily create an automation like "when the phone connects to the car via bluetooth, turn the notification sounds off", then another automation to turn them back on when it disconnects, etc.
Back when I had an Android phone I used an app called AutomateIt. It was free and very user-friendly.

Many Thanks!

 

[demon67]

Macrodroid is another automater option for Android.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Back when I had an Android phone I used an app called AutomateIt. It was free and very user-friendly.

This is it:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=AutomateIt.mainPackage

The basic version, which will cover all your needs just fine, is free. It's light, easy to use, and works perfectly. You just set it and forget it.
An automation consists of one or more triggers and one or more actions. You can create as many automations as you want, and enable or disable them at will. Here are some sample automations that I used to have on my Android phone:

1. When the phone connects to the car, turn the ringer sound off (because I wanted the ringer to come exclusively through the car's speakers; the phone itself ringing at the same time would have been superfluous).
2. When the phone disconnects from the car, turn the ringer sound on.
3. When the phone is on a charger and the charge level reaches 80%, play a sound.
4. When the phone is on a charger and the charge level reaches 100%, play another sound.
5. When I turn off airplane mode, send a text message to my wife to tell her I have arrived safely at my destination.
6. When the phone is not on a charger and the charge level drops to 20%, play a sound and turn on the notification LED in yellow.
7. When a call ends, turn off the screen and lock the phone.
8. When I unlock the phone, go to the home screen immediately (not to whatever screen happened to be active before locking, which was the default behaviour).

etc.

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