Around Sound – Know if something happens around you

[App] Around Sound

Around Sound allows you to listen to music, watch videos or play games while still being aware of your surroundings.

As seen on:

Lifehacker

bit.ly/GITDJ1
evolver.fm Editor’s Choice (Pro)

Gizmodo
bit.ly/PnTvQL

What it does:
This app uses your your headset’s microphone to listen for loud noises. Then depending on the mode it either pauses or dips the volume of your music or movie then plays back the sound that triggered it. Then returns your music or movie to normal volume or resumes playback.

Bluetooth Mic Option:
Currently only works with mono headsets and some AD2P kind

Where would I use it?
At the office: pause your music automatically when someone is trying to get your attention
At home: Don’t miss door slams, children crying, your dog barking, or other warning signs
At the airport: Relax at the gate and have your music pause when the gate announcements start
Anywhere relatively quiet where you want to know if something happens around you

Best to use with:
Sound isolating earbud headphones with mic- These are practically earplugs now, so don’t miss out on what’s around you.
You can use it with just headphones but be aware the microphone used is now your phone. So leaving it in your pocket wouldn’t work so well.

How to use:
Make sure your headset is plugged in. Simply start the app, push Start, see the noise level around you, set the trigger level by using your finger to swipe the meter, hit the home button to access your music, videos or games and enjoy.

Limitations:
Needs Gingerbread or higher (Android version 2.3, etc)
Portrait Mode Only for this free version
You can’t be in a really loud environment otherwise the microphone input will be maxed out and there is no way to detect a louder sound.

Compatibility:
Works with most popular music and video players: Make sure to enable headset controls if it’s not working at first

Samsung’s FM Radio App currently doesn’t work (actually crashes the app, sorry)

Permissions Needed:
Network Communications: Full Internet Access (For Ad Supported Version)
Phone Calls: Read Phone status (shuts off the audio processing during calls)
Hardware Controls: Audio Settings, Record Audio (to use the microphone, no audio is ever stored)
Coarse Location(Not GPS): For Ad Supported Version
Photo/Media/Files/Storage: For Ad Supported Version (ad caching)
Billing: For in app upgrades
Bluetooth: For Bluetooth mic feature
Broadcast Sticky: For Bluetooth mic feature

Developed on a Galaxy S7
Around Sound is Superpowered

Around Sound user reviews :

This concept is becoming more widespread and sadly in comparison this app is super unresponsive/high latency. Paying for the app may make this somewhat better. Fwiw what most people want is to have surrounding sounds mixed in at a chosen level to a near live (<5ms)

Works quite well, if they could figure out how to maintain stereo while using blueo microphone, it would be hreat. Also how can we use google assistant while using this??? Regardless beautifully useful app.

Tried to use this app to listen to music and be able to hear my wife when she is talking to me. The tiger works well, but it destroyed the quality of my music

Needs persistent relative volume control. I want this HALF as loud as YouTube andI can’t hear any media over it. This defeats the ENTIRE PURPOSE of why I wanted an app anything at all like this XD I’m sorry but it’s useless to me in its present form

This app is great for wired headsets… With pro, you can have background music for whatever you’re doing (with a bit of tuning to the music player, that is) and get really great feedback from the mic. Bluetooth mode simply doesn’t work. The mic doesn’t pick up anything, and it’s completely useless. I still recommend wholeheartedly buying this if you have a wired headset though.

I think it is a neat idea. I wish the dev would allow you to switch from external mic to internal mic though.

As it stated in the description this is mainly compatble for mono Bluetooth headsets and some Bluetooth headphones. I wish that it is compatible with my Beyution BT513 headphones because switching on the Bluetooth Mic disconnects the media audio from the headphones,and instead just uses the phone’s speaker. This is highly important to me because the sound that I need to hear from people who need my attention are directed to my ears that are covered by my headphones.

I love the functionality this app gives. I enjoy listening to music while I work but people often approach me at my desk so I tend to avoid it because I have trouble hearing them with my ear buds in. This app solves that problem. The only thing I don’t like is it adds a fairly quiet hiss that is very noticeable at lower volumes. It also makes all my music sound muddy; sort of like it is dampening the highs and mids when it passes music through. I hope to see audio quality improved in future updates.

Holds a lot of promise, if further improved to recognize minor sounds. Can use the app at many places. But ‘Goto store’ button is crashing the app and erases the trigger level. Please fix it.

Contact developer :

Email

Download Around Sound from Play Store

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