Sound Amplifier

Love the idea, but all of the optional settings are greyed out and Google offers no answers. It would also be nice to be able to use it over a bluetooth speaker in another room, as sort of a baby monitor, instead of only being able to use it with wired headphones. Furthermore, I would love it if it could operate while media is playing, so that I can be more aware of my surroundings on walks while listening to Google podcasts.

Works great! Do be mindful of the fact though, that it is a sound amplifier. I say this, because I see some comments complaining about background noise. Background noise is a sound though, and this is a sound amplifier, so guess what; background noise is also going to be amplified. If you don't like this, then either buy some headphones that will reduce background noise, or else don't download the app

It's a great idea - although the need to have wired headphones is a flaw that they will need to fix. It'd be great if you could talk to a person and they can speak as if your phone was on a table and you didn't have to seem to lean in near your phone. Or you could get up from a fixed environment (ex: leaving the table to get a drink) while they are talking and not have to pause them. (I know latency is the issue)

Like a temporary hearing aid for conversation. A reason to have a wired headphone. Pop on wired headphones, point the mic in the direction of what you're trying to listen to. Love that you can find tune per ear, but I think that this works best for listening to someone speaking to you rather than listen to the TV. It is a little weird to hear yourself a bit when you speak, but I think with continued updates, this has tons of potential.

When my Android Motorolas screen cuts off or I lock it. Then it makes this choppy on and off sound. Please fix. I know this app is free and no ads pop up ,but I think it's made by Google... And it won't work without headphones, witch is why it's getting low ratings, even though you can use the microphone of the phone after you hook up some type of headphones first. Please fix to where you don't need headphones also. Thank you for the wonderful app. Enjoy coding. c=

The amplifier de-activates itself when music, or presumably anything else (like a podcast), is playing on the device. 😕⁉️ (Huh?!). When audio is being played back to me, drowning out important and potentially critical sounds/speech around me—via earbuds that are lodged in the way of my path of hearing (my ears)—is precisely when I most need assistance in routing the important sounds from my environment to my ears. (2 rather than 1 star since I haven't needed / been able to evaluate other uses)

If the app worked properly it would be great. You have to plug in your headphones for it to work. The only problems are it picks up amplified sounds through the headphone mic and not the phone mic. I also had a hard time adjusting the amplifier and only understood what two of the three settings did. I have hearing loss and hoped this app could benefit my life. This is a great idea and has great possibilities but it seems like it has a long way to go.

Great step forward, however not accessible enough for target audience. Like many people with actual hearing issues, I use Bluetooth enabled hearing aids. This service requires the use of wired headphones. You can immediately see how this becomes a problem. Whilst I would love to be able to use my phone as a remote mic, and would rate this 5 stars otherwise, the convenience of having to remove one's hearing aids, and plug in and equip wired headphones unfortunately completely negates any benfit

SUGGESTION: When the audio input is set to headphone mic, the headphone speaker is giving the output. The developers should also enable the audio output to the phone loudspeaker. A big thanks for the developers of this app! Initially I was trying to create the same setup through Arduino or Raspberry. This app has saved me time, money and effort.

(Pixel 10 / HP Chromebook) The Sound Amplifier app is still great. However, it only supports wired headphones on Chromebooks. there is no Bluetooth headphone support when launched in Chrome OS. Also, the app is not compatible with purchased movies / tv shows in YouTube & other apps like Netflix. Still great, but leads to some disappointing experiences from time to time 👍🏿

Accessibility app does not work as expected. First: With headphones with their own independent microphones (meant for noise cancelling NOT calls), it is still using the phone mic, instead of letting my headphones work like they look--as HEARING aids! Secondly, Reviews from online show entirely more robust application with more & better features. Even with features the app itself shows, I can neither change microphone input nor change settings per ear—the "option" is greyed out & unclickable.

Love the idea! It doesnt work though..like, at all. The app starts, i think it even recognizes my (bluetooth) headphones, but then nothing happens. I cant choose the source that should be used (phone mic is greyed out, no other options) and there is literally no difference between the app running and not running, no matter the boost, finetuning or noisereduction i choose.

After installation on an S24 Ultra, and after I connected my Bluetooth headphones, it worked well. The provided controls also seemed to function as expected. On trying to run it a second time a couple of hours later, the app became very unresponsive and frequently froze. Also, it hadn't hooked up to audio properly. In the end, rather than fight it, I uninstalled it - my noise cancelling headphones are too useful to me to risk compromising them.

The idea is exactly what I need, but the execution is horrible. Please allow us to use this as a secondary sound source so we can listen to something else too. Furthermore, the noise reduction feature could use a serious makeover, or even better, let us set what the microphone will pick up! Google is known for speech recognition, if the app had an option to only feed back speech, it would be perfect! For now though, it lacks features that exist in other free apps.

I have hearing problems with both ears. I can't use hearing aids due to the fact that the background noise is too loud and I get bad migraines. Every time I try to use the sound amplifier it always has some excuse on why it's not working. The last thing I want is ads screaming at me. I already PVR everything I watch due to ads screaming at me. It's a real shame that it only works on your base. Trust me I don't need anymore base. I feel in my whole body.

It worked on both wired and bluetooth earphones but I found the lag made it awkward to use. Shame because it was quite effective, but as I say the lag between the sound and the receiving through the earpiece irritating. I've noticed that the 'conversation mode' which is the one I'm interested in is only available on Pixel phones. I'll keep it but it doesn't help everyday conversation.

Wow. Can't believe this isn't advertised at all. There's way more to this than meets the eye. Highly recommend. Wish there was a way to have the app more presentable in the apps menu. Seem to only be able to find it using accessibility menus. Or you can go through the play store to see that it's installed and then activate it. Not that user friendly trying to get to it, but once you've got it going.... wow.

Worse than nothing. Even at maximum volume, the mic phone audio is almost silent on my Bluetooth earbuds, and there is a definite delay. I hear the external audio with my ear, then a very faint copy after. I can definitely hear better without an ear bud in my ear, let alone with one repeating poorly out of sync. It appears they have been "working" on these issues since 2019, so I have little hope in this ever working.

It won't use Bluetooth-connected hearing aids for output Even with excellent help from the Chat facility, it's not been possible to route sound to my hearing aids. I can't get by the page that calls for connection to headphones even though the hearing aids are used for audio output whilst receiving phone calls.

I have a Bluetooth Bose and the app worked on it initially and it was amazing. It brought out sounds in the Trance music That I did not know existed in the song.I was listening to amazing... Now I go back into the app to turn it on and it's looking for headphones. Wireless or wired, it will not turn on. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it, and it's doing the same thing.What is the problem???????