This Useful Volume Feature Is Returning to Google Pixel Phones
Google released the second beta of Android 15 last week, giving us our first public look at new features like App Pairs and Private Space . But the tech giant has also rolled out another update for Pixel phones, bringing back the useful volume control feature that’s been missing since 2021.
The feature in question allows you to fully control the volume of groups of Google Home speakers made up of Google products during a broadcast. So, if you have Google speakers connected to your Pixel via Google Home, the volume menu will allow you to adjust each speaker’s output without having to be in the app you’re streaming content from. Google actually removed the feature back in 2021 in response to Sonos’ lawsuit.
Fast forward a couple of years: a judge in California overturned the verdict in favor of Sonos. At that time, Google immediately re-enabled the ability to add Nest speakers, Chromecast devices, and Nest displays to multiple speaker groups in Google Home. It was a homecoming of sorts for users with multiple speakers in the Google ecosystem. However, one feature was still missing: the ability to control these speaker groups even if they are not in a specific media application.
As Android Authority explains , before Android 15 Beta 2, broadcasting to a group of speakers from Nest or Google Home devices on your Pixel device required you to remain in the app you were broadcasting from. So, if you’ve been sending music from Spotify to one or more Google speakers, you’ll need to stay in that app without opening the others to be able to control your speakers’ volume using the volume rocker on the side of your phone. If you opened any other app, you will have to open the app you were streaming from again to control the speaker group. A little awkward, no?
Other phones may have taken advantage of full volume control for a group of speakers before the new beta release, since the feature has been built into Android AOSP (the base layer of Android that manufacturers build their own versions of) for years. Google’s flagship phone is finally back in action.