Hi all, I’m the developer of Volume Control: Quiet Dial. The moderators suggested a topic here, so that the answers I’ve given in a few volume threads over the past months can point to one place that stays up to date.
The problem: on some setups the lowest volume step is still too loud, for example with sensitive earbuds or IEMs, falling asleep to a podcast, or a quiet room at night. Android has no setting below step 1.
What it does: a small floating dial. Above a line it sets your normal volume in even steps, which also helps when the volume keys are worn. Below the line it adds six quieter steps of 5 dB, down to 30 dB under the phone’s minimum. Media, ringtones, notifications and alarms follow it, and so do app calls such as WhatsApp when the phone plays them as media.
What it cannot do: regular phone calls and keyboard or touch sounds run on paths no app can lower this way. On a few phone and Bluetooth headset pairs the quiet steps have no effect, and a music app using bit-perfect USB output bypasses them. Results vary by device, so reports from Fairphone owners are genuinely useful; a Fairphone 4 owner reviewed it on the Play Store this week.
Details: Android 9 or newer, no root, no ads, no tracking, no account, no internet permission, open source under GPL-3.0: GitHub - Rzuss/granular-volume: Quiet Dial (Volume Control: Quiet Dial on Google Play): volume below Android's minimum, and an on-screen volume control for broken volume buttons. Six quiet steps under the hardware floor, down to -30 dB. No ads, no tracking, no internet permission. GPL-3.0. · GitHub
On Google Play it is free to install, the first seven days are the complete app, then one payment inside the app, no subscription:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=granularvolume.com&referrer=utm_source%3Dfairphone%26utm_medium%3Dforum%26utm_campaign%3Ddevtopic
Questions, device reports (model and Android version) and criticism are welcome here. My older posts in other threads can no longer be edited, so this topic is where the current facts live.