Android 14 is doing more to protect your hearing

Being instructed to be careful for loud music could convey out {the teenager} in you. The Man simply desires to smash some innocent enjoyable by worrying over an virtually inconceivable risk, proper?

Unfortunately, everlasting harm to your hearing isn’t that inconceivable, particularly as audio know-how continues to enhance. It has solely gotten louder and more efficient at making a seal round your ears. Health Canada has a quick however complete web page outlining the dangers of listening to loud media for prolonged intervals of time, notably with headphones.

In the European Union there are security requirements for audio/video tools referred to as the IEC 62368-1. Catchy identify, I do know. Canada’s security necessities are separate, however primarily based on the IEC 62368-1. Thanks to the suggestions in these paperwork, Android has a loud noise warning in case you have headphones related (wi-fi or Bluetooth) and check out to increase the amount above 85 dB.

The security requirements and suggestions get up to date over time, so Android has to sustain, too. Android 14, the most recent model of Google’s cellular OS, will launch in a matter of weeks and produce with it a model new quantity warning system.

It was introduced to mild by Mishaal Rahman on X (Twitter).

Android 14 is including a brand new security characteristic to protect your hearing: Headphone loud sound alert.

Android will warn you should you’ve been listening to audio at a quantity above the advisable degree for lengthy intervals over your headphones. You can maintain listening or decrease the amount. pic.twitter.com/klU0VyjZXx

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) May 11, 2023

The characteristic he outlines is separate from the warning given once you strive to improve the amount. This new characteristic retains observe of how lengthy you’ve been listening to one thing at an unsafe quantity, then warns you when an unsafe period of time has handed. That time is primarily based on the IEC suggestions for protected listening in dB per week.

Android will maintain a 7-day document of the amount of what you’ve listened to, and also you’ll progress via phases. Each time you pay attention for too lengthy in a given stage, it can routinely decrease your quantity and ship a warning message. When you hit the fifth and ultimate stage, the warning for listening too lengthy will particularly say, “headphone volume has exceeded the safe limit for this week.”

Android is including this characteristic due to particular regulation modifications within the EU’s security tips. If you purchase a telephone in Europe, will probably be routinely turned on. For others, it may be manually enabled. It’s unclear at the moment whether or not the characteristic might be routinely enabled in Canada, since our security tips are primarily based on the EU ones; it could be an replace to laws that the EU has made however Canada has not but.

As we talked about, you’ll be able to anticipate Android 14 within the subsequent few weeks. However, on the time of this writing, no particular launch date has been given for Android 14.

Source: Mishaal Rahman on Twitter and Android Police