Sound Amplifier

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

Very amazed by simply Google or Play Store to still be updating this app. I've found it very useful over the years for family members and or clients with an additional set of hearing device works with toggles too. Especially with Bluetooth and can pick to use phone as a speaker nearby or can have an older set(TV) with volume on 1 with any BT headphones as the transmitter . Nice feature when you have on a set of cans is the ability to hear even a door open in the other room if you wanted to!

It would be extremely nice, if the app wouldn't just stop working because another app suddenly started playing audio. I suppose Android's audio focus is more of a curse than it is a blessing. Also, I don't know why, but the app switches the device mic into some kind of phone call mode as it sounds like I'm in a phone call whenever I turn off the amp and turn it back on. The only way to resolve this I found was to restart the device entirely.

Samsung Note 9: This is the best audio aid app that I have found thus far. I am definitely keeping it. BUT it should have loaded like a normal app and appeared on my app pages. It did not, instead requiring me to hunt around the web for instructions. Also, the accessibility icon (when you finally get the app to work) gets in the way of other items on my home screen. Also, the user interface is not as described in Google Play. All in all - a very nice app that just needs a bit more polish. Thanks Google Labs

I was really looking forwar to using this, but after installing it, discovered that ot only works with wired headphones. i may have missed that in the fine print, but its 2019, and most smart phones these days are being made without headphone jacks. this would probably be a great app and great technology , if it would keep up with the times, and be compatible with Bluetooth headphones. nobody wants to be tethered to their phones anymore. Thank you for the response google. Review updated

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.

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.

This app did not work with my phone and average earbuds. I couldn't even hear the person talk until the volume was up halfway on the slider. The vocal quality from my phone was terrible, too - the voice sounded very distant. In addition, there's a delay on delivery of the voice which is very disorienting when I'm looking at the person I could not judge the filtering ability because the basic sound I was trying to hear was so bad. There was also a delay between input and output - disorienting.

Not really sure how to review this at the moment. i will say that, should you install this, it will not appear as an app, but as an accesability control under your phone settings. it has a very interesting message when you go to turn it on, it says "to use this feature, plug in wired headphones..." Um, most phones, including Google's Pixel line, does not have wired headphone jacks. i have a dongle in my car, and some Bluetooth headphones that i haven't tried yet, but that is a very odd message.

Everyone complaining about Bluetooth needs to understand that you cannot do the real time processing required for noise reduction with a Bluetooth connection. ANY latency, even the few milliseconds of a good BT connection makes it impossible for the inverted signal to sync with the noise and cancel it out. Use the included Type C headphones or adapter, or get your NC built in to your headphones. There's no free lunch here.

The app is very useful and I would like it to keep working without pause. Cuz why pause at all? Also it would be great to be able to add various mics, not just one, to amplify the sounds around me and same when it comes to noise cancelation. Edit: I just realized it doesn't work with wireless earbuds though. Maybe you can get it to work. Appreciate the app. Thanks.

Useless since I can't use the Bluetooth headphones I have for my Pixel 3. Also, it would greatly help to be able to adjust the balance since I have more hearing loss in one ear. My hearing aid uses a Bluetooth microphone and there is no latency issue - I don't like carrying around extra stuff so I don't use it much. Thank you for the response!

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

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.

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)

UI needs tweaking (noise cancellation and boost settings are intuitive, but need consolidation onto one screen with tuning. Tuning, app description, permissions descriptions and graphics all need to be reworked to let users understand what they can do and how to get there. Example - let people select voice, music, road safety or other settings by name. Eliminate lags, make it work with Bluetooth to be useful. Don't push-download apps that are this rough.

Really strange (bad) side effect. So I was curious about this app with my new Pixel Buds2 and tried it out. It worked well i thought. But I don't need it so I turned it off and didn't think any more about it. Fast forward a few days and I figured out I could not play locally saved mp3s unless I had CC turned on. Streamed music was fine. Downloaded music was fine. But not ripped music unless CC was on. It took 2 months to figure it out. Uninstalled Sound Amplifier and they work again.....

Great idea! I've been wondering for years why I can't use my headphones as hearing aids. Unfortunately, the execution isn't as great - I played with all the settings and I can't get it to separate white noise from the tv audio. I also can't select which mic to use, aside from my phone having 3+ built in, I would have liked to use my earbuds as the audio source.

Need an option to change the frequency of voices. You can lose hearing in different ranges so being able to adjust the frequency of people's speaking voices would be great. Tested it out with family members with hearing problems. Not using the app was better than using it. Unfortunately no one was hearing any better using this. This could be a Samsung issue since I see other users having similar results. Running on a s9+

Don't have any hearing disability, but it works great as a stethoscope 🩺! Using my built in phone mic and listening through my Bluetooth earbuds. There are some negative reviews here but I believe at least some of them can be blamed on bad or old hardware. 5 stars when the app can recognize and optionally switch to the mic in the earbuds. Maybe it's already possible, but not for my model.

The Sound Amplifier app has a very specific function and as far as I know it only does that one thing. It amplifies the sounds around the device and only plays back over headphones and earbuds, it seems. I don't need this app for now, because I've got very good hearing. It would be great for my grandfather, however, who has to use hearing aids all the time!

It works - except that it produced a very high pitched and very loud sound, somehow a feedback problem, but there could be something more. The sound is so extremely loud and high that it is directly harmful too the ear. And it is so high that it may be outside of the useful audio frequencies. It needs to be filtered out. The feedback problem is unavoidable, of course. But this is not just a tone that cold be a real noise. I used a simple headset of the type earbuds with small device in the cable, which contains a button and a tiny microphone hole. It gave me tinnitus after about a minute.