The second Android 14 Developer Preview has been out for a little bit now, but people are still uncovering new features and tweaks. One such discovery is that Android 14 splits the ring and notification volume levels, letting users have a loud ringtone for incoming calls and quiet notifications for emails and texts.
Of course, if you don’t use a Pixel, this is something you’ve likely had access to for a while (and even older Pixels offered this feature before Google did away with it). For example, Samsung smartphones offer separate ring and notification volume controls.
While certainly not a major change, it is a nice quality-of-life adjustment for anyone over the age of 50 who doesn’t keep their phone on vibrate.
Google added this feature in Android 13 QPR2, as I first reported in December. The feature is gated by a DeviceConfig flag ("volume_separate_notification" under the "systemui" namespace), but it appears Google remotely toggled the flag for users on DP2.https://t.co/St2KP4AbjX
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) March 17, 2023
Android expert Mishaal Rahman tweeted that Google has been working on separating ring and notification volumes for a little while, with the feature appearing in the Android 13 QPR2 beta. However, in the 13 QPR2 beta, users needed to enable a flag to get the separated volumes. Based on the reports about Android 14 DP2, the feature just turned on, with Rahman writing that it looks like Google toggled the flag remotely.
It will be interesting to see if the volume separation is enabled in the Android 13 QPR3 beta. If it is, then the change could hit devices as part of the June 2023 Pixel Feature Drop. Otherwise, ring and notification volumes might remain together until Android 14 arrives.
Source: @MishaalRahman Via: Android Police
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