For those worried they won't notice if they left the tap on, or be able to tell if the smoke detector is going off, Android has them covered. The operation system's new Sound Notifications feature sends an alert to the user if it detects certain household noises, such as running water, beeping appliances, barking dogs and so on.
First released in 2008, the now-Google-owned operating system just released its latest version, Android 11, in September. The new operating system includes a variety of new updates to privacy and communication. However, the changes also include a makeover of Android's notifications settings to simplify the experience.
The Sound Notifications setting is designed primarily as an accessibility feature for the hearing impaired - who make up roughly 466 million of the people in the world, according to Google. However, the Android feature can also be useful for those who have headphones on and are just oblivious to what is going on around them. With the setting turned on, the user's phone will receive a push notification when it detects certain critical noises in the home. This notification can either be in the form of a flash of the device's camera light, vibrations, or as text. These Sound Notifications can also work with Wear OS devices, so some people can also get text and vibration alerts on their smartwatches, if say, the baby has woken up.
How Android's Sound Notifications Work
Working completely offline, Sound Notifications was developed through machine learning and uses the phone's microphone to distinguish between ten different noises. It's an extension of Google's auditory-detection work with Live Transcribe, which offers real-time captions for more than thirty sounds.
In addition, the Sound Notifications feature includes a Timeline view so users can see a brief history of logged noises over the past few hours. This way, users will be able to tell if, say, the baby started to cry after the dog started barking or someone knocked on the door. It's an interesting feature, to be sure, but it has its limitations. For example, it might be able to tell a user if a smoke alarm went off, but it won't say where it can be found. If the person has four alarms on different floors, they will have to manually check each detector to determine which one is making the offending noise. Still, it's better than nothing. Users who can't find the Sound Notifications setting on their Android phones, can download the Live Transcribe and Sound Notifications app from the Google Play Store.
Source: Google