Feature Request: Play loud shutter sound irrespective of the sound settings

[vpelletier]

Some regions (ex: Japan) require (strongly recommend ? layman here) artificial shutter sounds play irrespective of the current sound settings.

As far as I can tell, Camera (as of v64) requires the media volume to be up in order to have the shutter sound be audible.

I typically have my phone in silent mode (for the occasional robocall) and the media volume off (for the ever present auto-play videos), and as a result my phone never makes the shutter sound when I take pictures.

While I get that artificial noises are annoying, I am also worried about getting in trouble whenever I take pictures in public.

Would it be possible to make the shutter sound bypass the current volume setting ?

Some more info:

• Google's Camera app and OpenCamera seem to play the shutter when the ring volume is up, rather than the media volume.

• In my non-GrapheneOS android experience, this seems to depend at least on the network the phone is on (was last on ?).

• A quick search in android SDK finds the [MediaActionSound mustPlayShutterSound](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaActionSound#mustPlayShutterSound()) method.

• On OpenCamera's "about" screen, the "Can disable shutter sound?" appears as "Yes". Grepping the code, this does not seem to come from a call to mustPlayShutterSound, so my above search seems incomplete.

• I do not know if the shutter sound is mandated by law or a kind of industry standard. All I know is that a strong social expectation exists, and the lack of sound was pointed out to me on multiple occasions, although so far not to the point of actual troubles.

[thestinger]

GrapheneOS disables forced shutter sound in Japan and South Korea. It's not legally required for us to force it. Forcing it only means playing the sound regardless of the state of the toggle and it would normally still depend on volume settings. We do play shutter sounds by default everywhere, so you just need to enable volume if you want it.

Google's Camera app and OpenCamera seem to play the shutter when the ring volume is up, rather than the media volume.

Many users disable phone ringing and rely on vibrate instead. Seems about as likely as media volume being disabled.

Would it be possible to make the shutter sound bypass the current volume setting ?

Probably, but it's not something we plan to add. It should be easy to change it to another volume setting like ring volume but that doesn't really seem to make sense.

[thestinger]

Since we already play the sounds by default, that seems more than good enough. If you want to propose changing which volume setting it uses please file another issue specifically about that and explaining why you think ring volume makes more sense than media volume. Neither seems like a good fit and both are things many people often disable. In many cultures not silencing phone ringing is considered quite rude in a lot of situations, while media volume isn't going to make any sound unless you actually play media although it could happen by accident in a browser due to autoplay.