Do you sometimes hear less well, but do you want to use a smartphone? With the right settings on an Android smartphone, you won’t miss a thing.
Accessibility settings
Android phones have a variety of settings that can help people with hearing loss when using the phone. Think of a vibration mode and subtitles. In most Samsung phones, these settings can be set in the ‘Accessibility’ section.
Enable vibration
When a person calls someone, the smartphone normally rings. Can’t hear that sound well? Then switch on the vibration function. Because the device vibrates in the pocket, you will notice that someone is trying to reach you. The vibration mode can also be used for incoming e-mails, chat messages and text messages.
Set the vibration mode like this:
- Swipe from bottom to top on the screen to open the overview of all apps.
- Tap on Institutions.
- Tap on Sounds and Vibration.
- Under ‘Sound Mode’, tap Vibrate.
- Tap on Vibration pattern for bubbles (Android 11) or Vibration Pattern (Android 9 and 10) to adjust the pattern.
- Tap a different vibrate mode to try out the different modes.
- Tap the left arrow at the top.
- Tap the left arrow at the top again to go to the settings menu.
Light signal
The phone can also give a light signal for incoming notifications or calls. When someone calls, a bright light flashes on the device.
- Tap on Institutions.
- Tap on Accessibility > Advanced settings.
- Tap on Flash notification.
- Tap the way you want the flash notification; ‘camera flash’ (camera flash) or ‘screen flash’ (whole screen).
- Tap on Example to try the notification.
- Tap the left arrow three times to return to the settings menu.
Mute sounds
If you don’t hear well, it’s a good idea to mute all sounds. This prevents the smartphone from making loud noises unnoticed. Because they may be disturbing to other people. Please note: with this function you turn off all sounds from your smartphone until you activate them again.
- Tap on Institutions.
- Swipe down a bit and tap Accessibility.
- Tap on Ghearing enhancements.
- Tap on Mute all sounds orAll sounds off to mute all sounds.
Subtitles on Android 11
The use of subtitles in movies is a big advantage. This way you better understand what the video is about. This is how it works on a device with Android 11:
- Tap on Institutions.
- Swipe down a bit and tap Accessibility.
- Tap on Hearing Improvements.
- Tap on Google Subtitles.
- Tap the scroll bar at the top right so that the bar turns blue.
Subtitles on Android 9 and 10
On a device with Android 9 or 10 it works like this:
- Tap on Institutions.
- Swipe down a bit and tap Accessibility.
- Tap on Hearing Improvements.
- Tap on Subtitle Settings.
- Tap on Samsung Subtitles.
- Tap the slider behind ‘On’ in the top right, so that the bar turns blue. Here you can also adjust the text background color, font and text size.
- Tap the arrow at the top left.
- Tap on Google Subtitles.
- Tap the scroll bar at the top right so that the bar turns blue. Here you can also adjust the background color and the text size.
sound balance
The sound balance can be changed when using headphones. For example, if you hear less well on the left, turn up the volume level of the left audio channel slightly.
- Tap on Institutions.
- Swipe down a bit and tap Accessibility.
- Tap on Hearing Improvements.
- Plug in a pair of headphones.
- Drag the left/right sound balance slider left or right to choose the right balance.
mono sound
Do you use single ear headphones? With stereo sound, you miss certain elements in the sound. Turn on ‘Mono sound’ to prevent this.
- Tap on Institutions.
- Swipe down a bit and tap Accessibility.
- Tap on Hearing Improvements.
- Tap the slider behind mono sound.