Android 14 will strengthen the volume monitoring of headphones, and will automatically lower if it exceeds the safety threshold.

CTOnews.com, August 17, the Android system has always had a security feature that warns users when they try to raise the media volume above the security limit, but this warning is easily ignored, and Android 14 will more actively protect users' hearing with its new volume alarm feature.

To protect users' hearing health, Android 14 will add a new feature that will warn and automatically lower the volume if the volume is too high or lasts too long when using headphones to listen to music. This feature is called "headset excessive Volume Alert (headphone loud sound alert)" and is designed to comply with EU safety standards.

The principle of this function is that Android analyzes the frequency of the audio signal to estimate the sound pressure level and possible hearing loss. Then, according to the accumulated "dose" in a 7-day rolling window, it is determined whether the safety threshold has been exceeded. If it is exceeded, the system will pop up the notification and lower the volume to below 85 decibels.

CTOnews.com notes that this feature currently applies only to wired headsets, not Bluetooth devices, because the actual sound volume of Bluetooth devices can be adjusted independently of Android devices. In addition, this feature is not enabled by default and will only take effect if it is turned on manually by the EU or by the user.

The official version of Android 14 is expected to be released in a few weeks and gradually rolled out to existing phones in the coming months. It is hoped that this feature will make users pay more attention to their hearing health and avoid long-term exposure to high decibel audio.