
Audio By Carbonatix
Android phones can now notify you when they detect certain sounds, which could notify people who are deaf or hard of hearing about important sounds nearby.
If you turn on the feature, called Sound Notifications, you can have your Android phone inform you about some sounds via a push notification, a flash from your camera light, or by making your phone vibrate.
Other devices support Sound Notifications as well, including Wear OS devices, which can send Sound Notifications via text notifications with vibrations. And they work entirely offline, according to Google.
Google says Sound Notifications can listen for ten different noises:
- Smoke and fire alarms
- Sirens
- Shouting
- Baby sounds
- Doorbell ringing
- Knocking
- Dog barking
- Appliance beeping
- Water running
- Landline phone ringing
Sound Notifications are already installed on Pixel phones and “select other Android phones” and can be turned on from the accessibility menu in settings, according to Google. You can also get the feature by downloading Google’s Live Transcribe app, which can transcribe audio it “hears” in real-time.
Google added an experimental feature similar to Sound Notifications to the Pixel Buds in August. The Pixel Buds’ Attention Alerts can automatically lower the volume of the headphones when they detect the sounds of a baby crying, dog barking, or the siren of an emergency vehicle.
Latest Stories
-
Bishop Gideon Titi-Ofei admitted as Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, UK
2 minutes -
National Justice Conference calls for sustainable funding to combat child labour exploitation
3 minutes -
Bank of Ghana partners DASA 2026 to advance Digital Asset regulation and innovation
5 minutes -
ECG and 9 state institutions failed to pay over ¢3bn in taxes in 2024, driving record ¢5.2bn irregularities – Auditor-General
9 minutes -
MMDAs prioritising permit fees over proper planning enforcement – Physical Planners Association President
19 minutes -
Nkwanta-Dadiase road rehabilitation underway after years of neglect
22 minutes -
Slight coastal rain, evening thunderstorms expected across parts of Ghana – GMet
40 minutes -
Former Dormaa East MP calls for greater investment in flood prevention infrastructure
41 minutes -
The smartest $130,000 property investment in Accra at the moment
48 minutes -
Bond market: Turnover increased by 56% to GH¢2.44bn
1 hour -
MDA financial irregularities surge 156% to GH¢5.27bn in 2025 — Auditor-General
2 hours -
Gov’t prioritising flood response PR over prevention – Former Dormaa East MP
2 hours -
High court dismisses Kwame Baffoe’s bid to strike out defamation suit by Dr Ransford Abbey
2 hours -
Government spending in quarter one 2026 dropped by 21%; capital expenditure still below target
2 hours -
Tax revenue and grants for quarter one 2026 falls to GH¢57.5bn
3 hours