I have an Android game that “helpfully” turns my volume up when it plays an ad. How/why is is even possible? It never asked for permission to alter any settings. More importantly, how can I prevent it? I turn my volume off so as not to disturb sleeping people. Need answer fast (before said sleeping people banish me to the couch.)
Are you sure? Go to Settings>Apps>[your game] and scroll down to the Permissions section at he bottom. You will probably see* Change audio settings* listed.
Only solution I can think of is to plug in headphones or purchase the ad-free version of the game.
The people programming these days seem to be excessively self-centered. No instructions, no way to turn off app, the app comes on by itself, and now this.
I uninstall apps like that!
Does it really turn the volume up or is it simply a case of the game audio being quieter than ad audio. What I mean by this is the volume control on your phone sets the upper limit for maximum volume, but the game runs at quieter at, say, half this max and the ad runs at the max for the current volume setting? (Or, the audio could be tightly compressed at max, too.)
But if it actually turns your sound on when it’s off, as you imply in your OP, then that is not the case.
Yes, I’m sure. Change audio settings is conspicuous by its absence.
Like I said in the OP, I turn the volume completely off. The game somehow turns it up to about 25% and I have to turn it back down. I can think of a dozen reasons allowing apps to monkey with audio settings without user permission is a really really bad idea, but no good reasons to allow it.
I’ve got a running app that does something similar. I’ll listen to music while I run, and I like to keep it at a comfortably low volume. Whenever the app gives me updates for stuff like distance or time, it’ll suddenly crank up the volume so I’ve got this voice shouting in my ears. Rather annoying.
Android has two crippling flaws. One is that it’s built around ad support, to the point where even purpose-built tools like AdBlock Browser are only partially effective and ads can be jammed into even apps without explicit support for them.
The second is that the audio control is inexplicably isolated from app control. AFAIK you still can’t disable or lock the volume buttons. The best you can do is use an app that resets changes in a few seconds if they aren’t confirmed.