Sound Amplifier: Amplify surrounding speech and on-device audio

You can use Sound Amplifier with wired or Bluetooth headphones to filter, augment and amplify the sounds in your environment or on your Android device.

Download and turn on Sound Amplifier

1. On your Android device, download Sound Amplifier from Google Play.
2. Connect headphones to your Android device.
3. Go to the Apps section.
4. Tap the Sound Amplifier app .

Turn on Sound Amplifier on your Android device

Sound Amplifier is already installed on Pixel 3 and above and selected Android devices.

1. Open your device's Settings app .
2. Tap Accessibility Sound Amplifier Open Sound Amplifier.
3. Connect wired or wireless headphones to your device.

Tips:

• To add Sound Amplifier to your app list:
  1. Go to Sound Amplifier Settings.
  2. Under 'General', turn on Show icon in the app list.
• To create a shortcut to Sound Amplifier:
  1. Tap Accessibility Sound Amplifier.
  2. Turn on Sound Amplifier shortcut.

Change Sound Amplifier settings

You can change the noise reduction and boost levels to fit your current environment.

1. On your device, open Sound Amplifier.
2. Tap Phone mic.
3. Adjust the settings:
   • Reduce unwanted sounds: to reduce noise in the background, drag on the 'Noise reduction' slider. This setting only applies to the phone mic, not phone media.
   • Boost quiet sounds: to boost quiet sounds such as low speech sounds, drag the 'Boost quiet sounds' slider to the right.
   • Boost low frequency, high frequency: to boost high-frequency sounds like bird sounds, drag the slider to the right. To boost low-frequency sounds like deep voices, drag the slider to the left.
   • Adjust ears separately: to apply sound and frequency settings to the left and right ears independently, tap Adjust ears separately. For Bluetooth headphones, this setting only applies to phone media, not to the phone mic.

Important: with some Bluetooth headphones, sound might be delayed or lower quality. For improved sound quality, try a different set or switch to wired headphones.

Use Conversation mode on your Pixel phone

On Pixel 3 and later, you can use Conversation mode to amplify your conversation partner’s voice and block out other noises. This mode is most useful when you have a conversation in a noisy environment and you want to focus only on the speaker's voice. 

1. Open your device's Settings app .
2. Tap Accessibility Sound Amplifier.
3. Tap Open Sound Amplifier Phone mic Conversation mode.
4. Point your phone’s camera at your conversation partner. 
5. Tap Adjust sounds.
   • To change how much noise you block, turn on Noise reduction and use the slider.
   • To boost quiet sounds, turn on Boost and use the 'Boost quiet sounds' slider.
   • To change frequency, turn on Boost and use the 'Boost high or low frequencies' sliders.

Tips:

• For best audio results, use noise-cancelling wired headphones.
• For clearer speech, move the 'Noise reduction' slider to above 90%.
• Tap Flip camera and have your conversation partner hold the phone.
• To pause amplification, swipe the notification shade and tap Pause .

Learn more about how to use Conversation mode.

Amplify media on your device

You can use Sound Amplifier to play video and audio on your device. You can also adjust the sound from the music or videos that you play on your device. This option is available for Pixel phones with Android 10. Learn how to check and update your Android version.

Tip: You can also use Sound Amplifier as a remote microphone. Place your phone near a TV or speaker, then use your Bluetooth headphones. You’ll hear audio in your headphones while the sound remains at a comfortable volume for others.

Get help

For more help with Android accessibility, contact the Google Disability Support team.