App raising volume on it's own

RRZishe

Hi,
I have an app on my phone that even when I turn the alarm volume down to zero, when it wants to give me an alarm, the volume just goes back up to whatever volume the app wants it to be. I didn't give the app any special permissions, just regular notification permissions.
How is this possible and what can I do to fix this?
Thanks

thmf

RRZishe What's the app?
Does it raise specifically Alarm volume and not, for example Notification or Media volume?

Eumenia

RRZishe Hi,
I have an app on my phone that even when I turn the alarm volume down to zero, when it wants to give me an alarm, the volume just goes back up to whatever volume the app wants it to be. I didn't give the app any special permissions, just regular notification permissions.
How is this possible and what can I do to fix this?
Thanks

As far as I know apps can change the volume without special permission

RRZishe

thmf it's the "home front command" app for rocket alerts in Israel.
It only raises the volume of the alarm

thmf

RRZishe I'm guessing here, but judging by the purpose of the app this behavior is by design and maybe for the best. Seems logical for the app devs to raise the alarm volume, so the alarm will be heard by users no matter the case.
The fact that it raises notification sounds for all other alarms is a mere by-product, since (guessing here) I think Android doesn't allow you to create a separate notification channel with separate volume level. Meaning, as a dev you can't create a separate volume bar and call it "my volume level just for my app", at least not easily.
Also, using Alarm notifications channel may have additional upsides. For example, if your phone is in Do Not Disturb mode other notifications will be silent, but (again, guessing) Alarm notification channel should override it, since it's an alarm and it's important to wake the user up.

RRZishe

thmf What you're saying does make sense, but 1. How does the app even do that if I didn't give it permission to change system settings? 2. It's not always useful, foe example I'm often not in the country, yet I still want to keep the app active without it changing my set volume.

thmf

RRZishe 2. It's not always useful, foe example I'm often not in the country, yet I still want to keep the app active without it changing my set volume.

I can't think of any built-in mechanism for that and it seems things like these are better implemented on the app's side. However, you could disable the app while you're not in the country as a partial workaround, though it won't stay "active" as you want. To do this long tap on the app -> App Info -> Disable. To enable the app do the same procedure and tap Enable. Of course this goes hand in hand with an ugly disadvantage of forgetting to re-enable it every time you're back. If you know the dates when you're back you could add a reminder to re-enable the app in your calendar.
Of course all these are half-measures. Consider writing a ticket to the app developer. Your suggestions make sense at least to me, so maybe they will be open to implement them.
As a side note, I think some automation apps may be capable of doing something like lowering alarm sound back every minute or if it's raised over certain level, or a more sophisticated variant of automatically disabling and re-enabling the app based on your location. I wouldn't recommend this path, as such apps often need very broad permissions over your device, thus are dangerous.

RRZishe

Eumenia is there a way to change that? I feel like if I set volume to a certain level, it's cause I want it there and any app shouldn't be able to just decide to change that

starglider

RRZishe Yeah that does seem really obnoxious. Just deny the app the ability to change volume. Based on what you're saying, I think the adb shell command would be cmd appops set <package_name> AUDIO_ALARM_VOLUME ignore

You can see all the volume permissions starting on row 201 here: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/b267554/core/java/android/app/AppOpsManager.java

'ignore' is safer than deny, since the app isn't aware that the operation failed, and you're less likely to hit unexpected behavior/crashes that way.

Eumenia

RRZishe is there a way to change that? I feel like if I set volume to a certain level, it's cause I want it there and any app shouldn't be able to just decide to change that

I am not aware of such a method.
Maybe you should send the app developer feedback

NetRunner88

In the app you can lower the sound
In android settings you can adjust if you want to emit sound or not (settings > applications > front command > notifications)