New Android 14 safety feature will protect users from hearing loss

Google continues to implement outstanding elements in its upcoming Android version. Apart from several interesting tweaks, Android 14 will also bear an important safety feature that will protect users from hearing loss by warning them about loud sounds at the right time.

Yes, the US tech giant is readying a unique headphone loud sound alert for Android 14 which will act as a safety feature and guard your hearing capability. As the term reflects, it will notify users of excessively long hours of audio consumption with high volume on their headphones.

Recently Google released SDK 24 source code which flashes lights on how the headphone loud sound alert works. Consequently, the feature uses computed sound doses (CSDs) in contrast to a fixed volume index.

Meanwhile, Android OS performs a frequency-dependent analysis of the audio signal to calculate how loud and potentially harmful the signal content is. It has further divided the volume level into a range including a momentary exposure.

• Accordingly, At 1x, 2x, 3x, and 4x the CSD, it prompts an alert with the statement:

“volume lowered to a safer level. Headphone volume has been high for longer than recommended.”

• On the other hand, the 5x the CSD, the device will show”

“volume lowered to a safer level. Headphone volume has exceeded the safe limit for this week.”

• Lastly, the momentary exposure notification will say

“Loud sound detected. Headphone volume has been higher than recommended, which can damage your hearing.”

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The information reveals that Google is imposing this feature to comply with regulatory requirements in the EU. Hence, it won’t be enabled by default. So far, Android had this functionality. However, the company is now making it more useful and aims to trigger the highest level of safety when the sound appears at 93dB.

(Source)