IssueTracker

Yep me too,
I'm deaf in one ear and its becoming a drag converting everything into mono on my computer first, but unless I do this I miss the right channel.  There must be an audio player that will play stereo tracks in mono, right???  I cant find one though

Should be possible for somebody to write an app that can play an stereo file in mono not sure if anybody has done this though.  I am asking for something a bit more than this though the ability to down mix the master stream to Mono.  This would mean that you would be able to play games or listen to Spotify in mono too.

With the little bit of research I have done, I think what I am asking for is an extension to android.media.audiofx to include a Mono class.

This could then be applied to Session 0 which I think would achieve what I am describing.

I'm not deaf, but I do know that listening to stereo music on a device with one speaker straight blows.  Why this isn't part of the default music app or system wide is one hell of a mystery.

Alternatively an option in settings to force all sound to mono which is, although it pains me to say it, what ios does.  

Add me to the deaf in one ear club. I need noise reducing headset for work and I can't afford to get a custom headset. I tried wiring both channels into one speaker but you can't solder the newer speaker wires. A stereo to mono adapter doesn't work because you don't always get a good connection with a stereo plug in a mono jack. So I would need a stereo to mono then a mono to stereo to make it work which equals 3 inches of adapters out of the jack. This really should be a simple accessibility option!

I too would like to see this. I've have only one ear that works and I keep loosing my modified adapters that hard-merge the two channels at the wire.

I'm one of the 10% of the planet's population who hears less in one ear, and an audio pan balance control is essential for me.

I was delighted to see that Archos already have that feature in their Gen8 Android devices - please put it into 'vanilla' Android as well. I'm tired of using modified in-line volume controls with most portable devices that lack this basic audio feature.

Or at least, write somewhere in big bold letters : Android is not for the partially or totally deaf! Don't wait for your users to do that, please, or it could be labelled as bad publicity :(

I too am deaf in one ear and would dearly love this for all of my Android devices.
Please add this. Either as the base OS or even as an app. Anyone?

I agree too. My headphones are quieter in one ear and I want to rebalance them (like you can in Windows) so I can hear properly again.

I don't have any hearing problems, but this seems like it should be anan easy fix. Personally I would like to have this feature so I can listen to the Beatles or Ray Charles on the busted stereo at work that my boss is never gonna fix without it sounding like I am hearing the 'weird outtakes ' version.

iOS has it. Why android doesnt!?

Ridiculous that this isn't an option from the start, as it is in other devices, such as iOS. Personally, my headphones are damaged and can only use a single audio channel, so for now my Android is quite worthless for playing music.

Please add this, seriously disabling for being deaf in one ear

Holy cow, trying to find a way to get my music to play on my android in mono is impossible. I've looked everywhere for this feature. Sadly itunes has the feature to convert everything to mono when syncing to mobile device, and the IOS has the mono switch feature built in.

I am deaf in one ear, and a physical mono adapter is garbage. static in the loose connection and potential for clipping and damaging the device!

Please please please fix this!

oh and a way to rate my music and that tag the files would be epic too.

IOS able user to switch between L or R channel for speaker output. Even with the mono audio, Android lacks the function to switch between channels. This is the only disappointment that I see in Android compare to IOS.

My only working set of speakers right now is busted and only plays on one side.  I was searching for a quick fix, I figured that's the sort of thing that would be in the accessibility settings, for people with lopsided hearing (whose ranks I have already begun to join at a mere 25 years old).  I was wrong.  But it gets worse.  It's not supported at a very low level in the OS.  You can't even get an app for that.  No offense, because I'm sure these programmers and testers put in a full day's work like the rest of us, but how did nobody along the line stop and say, "what about accessibility for the partially deaf?"  That just seems like a fairly gross oversight.  It's made even worse by the fact that iOS has full support for mono, and it's not like android is brand new.  So, you dropped the ball on this one.  Now pick it up and put it back in play, before a whole lot of somewhat deaf people defect to the other team.

Just adding on since this has been a feature on iOS for some time and I'm delighted to have switched to Android after 5 years (3 iphones). I listened to some music this morning and I'm missing that Mono output accessibility feature already. Thanks in advance to the developers working on this.  

I'm also deaf from one ear and with a little searching I found an app that can switch your music to mono and the name of the app is power amp I know its not much but really helps amplify your phones volume a little and under equalizer in the app it gives you the option to put it in mono

@bugarinj Thanks for posting this bit about POWER AMP. My friend recommended it to me just as a music player but when I started playing with the EQ I saw that "mono" setting and I was really happy to see that. Thanks for sharing.

@eddie glad I could help

Well while it would have been nice to get a update on here to say you were looking at it, I'm very happy to say that the setting has now appeared in the accessibility section after getting a Galaxy SIII with Android 4.0.4 finally I can listen to The Velvet Undergrounds, The Gift again.

Thanks a lot for putting this in.
Ben

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Someone should be working on this - its a big issue for those of us with SSD. Apple used to hold a force me to buy their product because it had mono audio support. Basically the only thing that stopped me from getting an iphone (that has mono audio support) was that Samsung had put in mono audio on their galaxy s3.

I have migrated from iPhone 4 to Nexus 4, definitely missing the mono setting as I only  want to use one earphone at work. This needs to be worked on, seems like such a simple feature.

I too would love to be able to choose mono audio. Installing a music player app is fine for music, but it doesn't help with other apps, videos, etc... The only reason I still have apple products is because I'm deaf in one ear and they have an option for mono sound. Other than this one problem, I'm new to android and loving everything about it!

It's Poweramp, guys! That's the app- the only one I've found- to give a simple mono switch with the tone controls. Get it on Google play, there's a trial version as well. I'm going to buy the full version so I don't have to keep reinstalling-it's useful for me to run the phone into my mono/stereo guitar combo in mono without extra cables or adaptors.

Poweramp is definitely worth the purchase but this needs to be a universal accessibility option in Android's Settings. That way you can hear in mono when you use Pandora, Spotify, Google Play Music, etc. Two and half years ago, iOS 4 added this option and I think Android needs to follow suit already.  

Yeah, Android really needs to pick this up! iOS has had it for years. Right now I have a stupid AAC radio station I'm trying to play in TuneInRadio, and the broadcast is in mono, but it only plays through the right ear >.<

On my iPad I can just click a button in accessibility settings and it goes to both, on my Android I'm stuck with trying to listen in one ear (which is quite annoying to me).

Where is the mono setting?

I agree with everyone! Important accessibility feature to be able to change balance/play in mono.

I'm looking for mono as a feature of Android in general, or Google Music in particular.

I think being deaf in one ear (or only having a single ear) is more common than people realize.  Particularly with artificial (non functional) ears other people can't tell.

Sorry to spam everyone again, but I'd like be more specific.

As an end-user I want the same thing as everyone else here.

As a developer I would like the option to apply an arbitrary filter to the device's audio output.  Like an equalizer but with the ability to specify a different filter for each channel (my application would only require 2 channels) and without the current very limited palette of frequencies.

Perhaps there are security issues involved?  The filter would be static and it should not be a problem if applying a new filter causes a user confirmation dialog (i.e. the way it works if my app enables Bluetooth).

Aside from the people with hearing difficulties, this would be very useful for someone like myself who often listens to music with only one ear plugged at work.

I used to have an earphone extender cable that wasn't quite right for stereo so all sound played in mono. I've no longer got this, and now I just don't listen to music at work anymore because with only one ear in, most music sounds terrible when you get half a song.

This feature really needs to be part of core Android

I think the need and market advantage for balance and mono audio features are much greater than most developers realize. Roughly 7.6% of the US population has a significant unilateral hearing loss and 12.7 a bilateral loss; a full 20.3% of the US population. Many people I know have single sided deafness, including me, but it is generally an unrecognized condition as most of us have adapted to appear reasonably normal to normal hearing persons. We sit on specific corners of tables, always walk on a particular side of people, avoid communicating in crowds, cock our heads in particular ways and swing them subtly to determine the direction of a sound ... but we can't fake-out stereo headphones. And for the partial loss folks the ability to have specific frequency adjustments to each channel would be a valuable personal profile feature to move between devices.
     

I couldn't have said it any better. Down to the details of sitting on specific corners and avoiding communicating in crowds. We really can't fake-out stereo. Hopefully the Android devs are listening. Thanks!

I want mono because I can listen to music at work but I have to have one ear bud out. It's the rules in case the boss calls she doesn't want to have to shout.

I just found out that Samsung Galaxy S4 (and probably other models) have the option to change the balance and mono output in the accessibility menu. This leads me to think that it should be possible/easy to do this in core android!

Deaf in one ear. Just brought a Sony Xperia Z, which does have a force mono setting... but only on the radio. It still amazes me that this is not a basic setting. I don't like the fact that if I want mono sound, I either have to buy a Galaxy or an iPhone, or pay for a 3rd party app do what should be a basic option.

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I use one earbud when I'm cycling (kerb side) and I have to agree this is pretty basic. This option is available on my old iPhone 4, but I don't really fancy having to swap phones every time I want to go out on a bike ride, or carry 2 devices.

Need this feature so much. I'm sure it's very easy to realize.

Really need this feature. I'm having to carry around my old ipod even thought I'm already carrying my phone just so that I can listen to my music >.> . It's such a simple thing that even IOS has, why doesn't android?

I really want this feature too. This issue is 2.5 years old already.

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So I just noticed my new Samsung Galaxy S4 running Android 4.2 had this feature... but my Nexus 10 running Kitkat 4.4 still doesn't.... I guess Samsung handled it for the Galaxy S4? Why isn't this base functionality?

I've been deaf in my right ear for three years now.

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Would love this feature. Bit embarrassing for Google as Samsung has managed to add a mono audio setting in all Galaxy devices as of late. Even Amazon added mono audio to the Kindle Fire.

I recently underwent surgery to remove a tumor near my right ear, which resulted in a total loss of hearing in my right ear. I have been trying to figure out a way to get my HTC One Google Play Edition to blend the left and right stereo channels into mono so that I can hear the nuances of the music that I used to enjoy listening to. I can find nothing in the Accessibility or Sound settings for doing this.

After searching the internet, I found this feature request. I was surprised that it has been an outstanding request for over two years. Can someone from Google comment on whether this is a technically difficult feature to add, or is this just not a high enough priority to make it into a build? Something like 1% of the population are unilaterally deaf.

This would indeed be a useful feature. i bike to work every day, and don't want to plug both my ears with earbuds, for the sake of safety. Down-mixing to mono would enable me to use one ear bud and hear all the music. Seems such a simple request!

I listen to music all the time in situations where I can only use 1 earbud at a time, so a mono feature would be awesome!

I agree this should be a simple accessibility setting Stereo to mono or better yet a audio option to re-balance L-R for those with partial hearing loss. There are single ear earbud style headphones that play both channels into a single earpiece "OneGood Earphones" for example.

Please put it to high priority as it seems to affect at least about 20% of the Android user base as an essential needed feature. Every other sound device has a balance Option, i think all the chipsets supporting Android have a balance sound feature which can be used! When playing stereo, two channels are used - it can not be so difficult to put a hook somewhere in the driver/module/function where also the volume hook sits, to control each channel - so to support mono mixdown and balance settings... Tell me where this hook is and i'll try to code an extension...

As one who is deaf in one ear, I am quite happy to have found the Mono Audio feature on my Samsung Stratosphere II under the Accessibility settings. But I am sad to hear it isn't part of stock Android, and is something Samsung added.

I am not deaf but I like to use only one earbud.

There was an option for this on my old Samsung galaxy s2.

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Well, that's an application setting which is only good for that one
application.
A global setting in the Android OS (which is what's being requested) would
work for any and all applications.

But, thank you for listing that App as every little bit helps!

The only downside is the Equalizer isn't the same across the Android platforms. For instance on Sense, the HTC One will not show an equalizer since it's being EQ'd by Beats. On another AOSP ROM or Cyanogenmod, there is the option to use DSP Manager. As was mentioned, this needs to be a global feature within Accessibility settings. I'm strongly considering moving to Samsung just to get this feature. Still annoying though because if I want AOSP I'll lose the feature.

It also doesn't work particularly well, I noticed. It definitely changes the quality of the music, but on some of the more problematic tracks I've encountered the improvement is only marginal.

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Via Google Music (Nexus 7 v1)

Settings > Equalizer > Set surround sound to far left (off).

I've listened to some of Wicked with this setting- I'll listen to each song back to back tomorrow and see if it improves things.

I'm 'effectively' deaf in one ear - so a mono 'switch' option would help if combined with an equaliser setting.

Hi OP here.

Well three years on and you still don't seem to have fixed this issue.  I understand that this is where hardware meets software and that you don't own the hardware in the majority of cases so can't ensure every hardware manufacturer includes this feature.  However for the nexus 5 (which you do own) to still not include this simple accessibility feature is frankly embarrassing when the IPhone has had it for 5+ years and the galaxy series has had it for around two years.

For reference when I raised this issue with apple years ago when I had an IPhone the next version of the OS included the feature.  I did not even need to wait for the next version of the phone.  What is preventing you from sorting this out?  What is preventing you from responding to the 50 or so people who have replied to this thread?  For every person who has found and replied to this thread how many people do you think there are out there who would benefit from this feature?

This may provide some interesting reading for you https://www.google.co.uk/accessibility/ ,oh wait a second you wrote it.

Ben

Hey Op!

Pls do make a thread at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/accessible as provided by your link too. Then we can star that suggestion there too! Perhaps we are in the wrong forum. Couldn't hurt anyways...

So I just upgraded to a nexus 5 from a Samsung galaxy s3. Very frustrating to discover I have lost the option of mono audio output. Really disappointed.

This wasn't the only reason but the lack of this core feature is why I switched to the Samsung gs5. I think it's the best flagship available and I can listen to Revolver without missing half the songs.

So thanks Samsung for always having mono output. Be nice if Google caught up.

I guess this is what others were speaking of above, but I've finally found a software solution for my Nexus devices.  The 'Equalizer' app on the Play Store lets you enable the Virtualizer function.  If you crank that to 100%, it seems that it will effectively render the audio to both channels.

Equalizer apparently doesn't work with apps that do their own equalization, and it seems that the effect isn't the same a simple mono output, but it makes it so that I can listen to the radio dramas I like from one speaker.

As someone who is also deaf in one ear this is something I'd like to see added to the system > settings > sound menu. It should be easy enough to build into the default OS.

For now I'm using VLC player app which has an equalizer which can be set to right or left... however this doesnt' work for everything and is not true mono in that some sounds still seem to be lost.

Hi yes. It is now September 2014. Your users have been asking for this since June 2011. Are you straight up ignoring us? Or is it some form of incompetence preventing you from giving us a basic feature that iOS provides. At least give us an answer

When we get this feature? :(

This should be an accessibility system setting on all smartphones.
Can't think why this hasn't been added to android yet :(

Thankfully my S3 provides this. Thanks Samsung. No thanks Google....

Every time someone post a reply here, everyone who starred the issue get an email notification. I understand you feel frustrated that this hasn't been fixed yet but when I get useless notifications like this, I feel like unstaring the issue to stop getting them. This is rather bad as Google uses the number of start that an issu has to prioritize developments.
Could you please avoid commenting unless it is for a constructive, development-related matter?
(Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not angry, I'm just asking in a friendly way)

Thank you

This is not obsolete! Why do you continue to ignore this glaring issue? You should at least provide an explanation.

Per the Android "life of a bug" page, obsolete means there was "a reasonable certainty that the bug did exist in the reported version but was already fixed in a later release". Should we take this to mean the bug has been fixed? If so, is there a release we should expect it in?

I think it means support has ended. Even though the issue was never
addressed or acknowledged officially by Google (what an embarrassment), the
issue is obsolete because support has ended due to End of Life.
 On Dec 7, 2014 7:31 PM, <android@googlecode.com> wrote:

It'd be nice if they'd at least SAY anything instead of silently marking our problem as 'Obsolete' and closing it.

Official (I think?) statement that mono is not actually fixed in Lollipop:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/uCjyryOrjyE

Given the extremely long history of this accessibility issue and Google's lack of movement on it since it was first voiced numerous core versions ago, myself as well as numerous other 1/2 deaf users did the obvious and switched to Apple iPhone. Mono has been there for years as a system wide accessibility option that works in all applications. Sorry to say, Google you lost me over a relatively simple driver config and settings menu change.

Absolutely pathetic. This feature does not just end at the deaf, if I am using a broken stereo system at work that only has one working speaker, on my iPhone I would just switch it to mono to be able to get the full mix.

If I would like to lay my head down in bed and fit a single earbud into my ear to comfortably watch a movie I'd switch the audio into mono to not have a bud ram itself up my ear.

I don't understand how such a simple feature could be overlooked for so long. We are not asking for equalization controls, most of us aren't even asking for the ability to balance the stereo field, we just want a simple toggle.

I just can't understand how this could be be left unattended for this long, in what is almost 2015. What on earth. And i'm not even deaf, I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for you folks.

The app "Poweramp" has an option to do mono mixed. Costs a few bucks, but for music it's a must (unless this gets fixed). Would love a global setting though. Half deaf here.

Poweramp will not work for those of using Google Music All Access or similar products.

Any device with a kernel that is compatible with Boeffla Sound Control can enable mono downmix. Unfortunately, this is mostly limited to Samsung products and the OnePlus One.

An option to force mono audio playback SHOULD be required for those of us suffering from unilateral hearing loss (partial and/or complete deafness in just one ear). Such a simple fix to add this.... but for some reason, it just isn't happening. So frustrating that the Android developers here do not seem to care about users with physical disabilities. Please address this longstanding issue!

Guys, use your headphones with 3.5 jack stereo->mono adapter. It's a nice workaround.

Do NOT use a mono-to-stereo adapter, it may damage your phone, and will make it sound crap.  Even if a shop sells a connecter explicitly for this, don't use it - they're lying.

The exception is if you have a proper one with resistors etc in it, but they're basically impossible to buy and have to have the right resistors for the impedance of your headphones and phone.

If you want to know why this sucks, and how to build a proper stereo summing cable, see http://www.rane.com/note109.html

After much searching I finally discovered a 1-BUD which combines both
channels and gives superb sound to a single earphone.

P.S. I'm not affiliated to them in any way.

This issue has probably been marked as "Obsolete" because of the recent release of Android 5.0, and therefore many older issues from the KitKat days have automatically been marked "Obsolete". I have created a new issue. If you still care about this being resolved, please star this new issue:

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=91776

and stop replying to this one. No-one will ever look at it.

Sign this petition :
https://www.change.org/p/google-inc-android-add-mono-audio-to-android

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If Google ever needed a good reason to implement mono audio output, it just got one. California just made it illegal to drive with both earbuds inserted. Only a single inserted earbud is permissible while driving a motor vehicle or riding a bicycle. For reasons of safety, one ear must be left open to hear the external environment. The population of California is over 38 million people, all subject to this single-earbud restriction. The solution that would give the most choices to the most users is to implement an option for mono audio output to both channels available from the audio jack. It would also be helpful to implement Left-Right Channel Balance for reasons already cited, and to help users compensate for uneven hearing loss/ability that inevitably comes with age. On a personal note, while my hearing is excellent, I strongly prefer to listen to music in mono when using earbuds. I most enjoy hearing the same music on both sides, not arbitrarily divided into partial stereo components, which I find distracting, uneven, and often unpleasant.