Ring volume control (Android 9)

[dosei]

On Android 8 the ring volume can be adjusted using the volume up/down rocker. Since upgrading the Android 9 the rocker controls the media volume. To change the volume I need to go into sound settings. Is there a way to configure the rocker to control the ring volume as before?

 

[codesplice]

At this time, no. Google conducted a survey of Pixel users back in February to find out how people like to control their phone's various volume levels (among other things). I guess the results indicated that most users adjusted only the media volume level most of the time, and that most users simple toggled the ringtone between on/silent/vibrate - so they altered the phone's behavior accordingly.

Previously, the volume buttons would adjust the ringtone volume most of the time, while you were only able to adjust the media volume level if some media was already playing. This could result in a bit of frustration if you for instance wanted to watch a video without sound in a quiet classroom or office - you couldn't easily adjust the media volume without hitting play on the video first.

Now the volume buttons work much more consistently - they'll always control the media volume level. You can quickly toggle the ring volume between on, vibrate, and silent by tapping the icon above the vertical volume slider, and you can tap the gear icon below it to jump straight to the volume control page in Settings for more granular control.

Personally, this setup works perfectly for how I use my phone - but I get that everyone uses their phones in different ways so this one-size-fits-all approach may not work for you. Feel free to let the developers know if that's the case via Settings > System > About phone > Send feedback about this device. This was a change apparently motivated by reviewing user feedback so it's really important to let the team know what you think.

 

[dosei]

Thanks codesplice. I change the ringer volume throughout the day depending if I'm indoor or outdoor, and hate changing the volume from settings, especially the preview of the sound level and ringtone.

 

[Hadron]

There are a lot of "audio profile" type apps in the Play Store. If this is really important to you one of those could probably be used to create a widget or shortcut for the ringer volume, or a toggle to turn it loud/quiet. Whether that is more convenient than pressing the volume button, tapping the gear icon and then having direct access to the volume slider is debatable, but it's the only other thing I can think of.

 

[moxiemoney]

Before, if you wanted to change the media volume before playing, you could go into settings>sound. Otherwise just adjust it while playing media. Makes perfect sense to me. When not playing media, control the ring volume. Makes perfect sense to me. Now, instead of it controlling the thing that you are currently doing or most likely to do, you always have to do extra clicks to adjust ring volume. Oh well, not a huge issue, but always surprising to me that people like the new method! To each their own!