Gentle volume increase up to a certain level

From Martin Madsen on 2014/11/30 20:30:02 +0000

I like the gentle volume increase feature, but it would be nice if I could also indicate a max volume, after which it will not keep increasing.

Copied from original feature request: http://urbandroid.uservoice.com/forums/264867-sleep-as-android/suggestions/6786039-gentle-volume-increase-up-to-a-certain-level

From Ethan Duffy on 2017/04/20 06:26:01 +0000

Alarm Clock Pro does this. I've gone back to that, even though it's a bit clunkier, since I live in a shared house and absolutely cannot just leave loud music playing in the mornings while I get ready in the morning.

From Hello on 2017/02/03 17:54:18 +0000

bump for this setting

From Mike on 2016/10/12 07:18:26 +0000

I'm sure the app used to do this, but now it just keeps going to max volume. Would be much better to go back to increasing only up to the point you have set. My phone max volume is horrendously loud :frowning:

2 Likes

From Anonymous on 2015/11/20 20:18:48 +0000

Same here

From Christine on 2015/01/11 05:51:18 +0000

Please add this. The alarm gets too loud on my phone.

1 Like

Definitely need this. Cell phones are getting louder and louder.

3 Likes

Was this ever looked into?

Got redirected here from support. They told me they were reluctant but wanted me to upvote anyway, so our concern are heard.

I’ll post my original reasoning here and their answer.

My original mail :

Hello,

When I use the option "slowly raise volume of my spotify playlist, it slowly raise to the maximum volume of my Phone.
But that’s way too high. First it becomes annoying (which is not a nice way to wake up).
And second, at that point, fear of waking my neighbourgh arrises and I either stop the alarm (risking falling back to sleep) or postpone the alarm (and falling back to sleep, again and again, spreading my wake up over an hour or so).

When using that option, the volume setting of the alarm is completely ignored. The only option I have is to spread the increase over a longer period of time (eg. 9 min).

What I used to do with another app is to have it slowly raise, for a gentle progressive waking up, up to a level at which music is agreable, low enough to not disturb my neibourgh, but high enough I cannot fall asleep.
I would then stay in bed, drifting with that background music, sometime just a couple of minutes, sometime a 15 min, based on how tiresome I was and how much morning thought I would have to process.

Arguably the Alarm fonctionnality is there to ensure at all cost one wakes up, not to make it confortable afterwards.
But I believe waking up is not always a binary process, and with what I just described, my mind goes overtime from foggy to clearheaded, so in a way, it’s a progressive waking up.
Plus, if you’re afraid I would sometime not wake up with the music (because it’s volume would not be high enough) there’s always the emergency alarm ready to kick in.

What I would like is one of the following alternarives :

A. When I select “raise the volume slowly”, I can select a maximum volume level. Easy enough.

B. When I select “raise the volume slowly”, it does not ignore the volume level I chose in the ringtone screen, but instead raise to that level. Less options, much more logical, but existing user might have a surprise.

3 Likes

Hi! Thanks for your email. I understand the need, but we are reluctant to do it since it actually goes against the idea of gentle volume increase - that you wake up at the lowest volume needed for you. If you fear falling back to sleep, I would recommend using a Captcha so you have to wake up. After all, that’s why you set up the alarm in the first place, isn’t it?
That said, more users are requesting this, could you please upvote this feature request: Gentle volume increase up to a certain level ?

Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Our current stance on this matter is that we don’t want to implement it because it would inevitably lead to someone setting up the volume limit too low and oversleeping.

We usually recommend setting the gentle volume increase to a longer time, so the low volume levels are playing for a longer time.

Of course, we are open to discussion of this matter, so if anyone has any idea on how to get rid of the oversleeping risk, we’re all ears :slight_smile:

We really need this.

You can install a waring message when setting increasing volume, that the volume only increases up to the set volume of the ringtone, or you can add an option to choose between increasing up to maximum volume or up to the set ringtone volume. That way nobody would oversleep.

I don’t want to increase the time period. It’s not a very good solution. There would still be a long time where I don’t wake up. Furthermore, I like to stay in bed when the ringtone/music plays, even if I’m already awake… With the maximum volume, that’s not possible, cause my phone gets annoyingly loud and the speaker starts to Crack.
I can’t switch it off, as my nfc tag is in the kitchen. And I don’t want to switch it off, because I don’t want to fall asleep.

When someone sets the volume too low, it’s his fault anyway. When he’s not using increasing volume, but static volume, and he’s setting the volume too low, he’ll oversleep as well. So that argument is invalid. And there’s still the backup alarm, right?

4 Likes

What do you think @petr-urbandroid?

A missing maximum sound level is a show stopper for me.
Please add it soon, so I can switch from outdated “Gentle Alarm” app to your app.

5 Likes

+1 for that feature

1 Like

This would be grand.

A simple pop-up warning could stop people from setting this too low, couldn’t it? Maybe allow people to test the volume they just set.

I like to use a playlist for my alarm and would want to keep it playing after I wake up but at full throttle, that’s a bit much for me and the people around me

While I don’t think I would personally use this feature, I see the benefits and feel if people want it, let them take that personal responsibility. If they don’t wake up because they set it too quiet, that’s on them.

That or have a setting that says “if alarm rings at maximum set volume for more than X minutes, increase volume further” as an option.
That way for people that normally can wake up to a gentle alarm, but that one time a season where they need something louder to wake them up, the option will be there.