Enhance call sounds: Reduce backgroundnoise on ringing sounds, reduce filesize, reintroduce 'connecting' sound, add 'call ended' sound #8948
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Removing the Sonar Ping sound has left some users unhappy, because they can no longer hear an audible difference between the connecting phase and the ringing phase. @geyson-signal argued that the sound was not nessary, but did make the call seem longer which could be a negative experience (https://community.signalusers.org/t/beta-feedback-for-the-upcoming-android-4-33-release/5880/23?u=meteor0id) . From reactions in the following days it became appearent some kind of distinct sound is actually prefered by some users, and I think that especially the visually impaired would greatly benefit from this difference, since they might not be able to reply on the textual difference on their call screen. As a solution, in this PR I propose to revert the changes made when removing sonar ping, but instead of the sonar ping sound use a sound which is much closer to the ringing sound itself. The idea is that anyone who doens't care to hear the difference won't, but someone who pays attention to it can clearly hear it. The new connecting sound is identical to the ringing sound with the sole exeption being that the connecting sound is slighly shorter than the ringing sound (and thus also loops a bit faster). I have also taken the oppurtunity to preform some noise reduction on the ringing and busy sounds. I have done this using audiacity. I have take great care to preserve the old and authentic sound of the ringing sounds, while reducing the static, and making the quiet actually quiet. The timing of the tracks has also been perfected, to assure the looping is seemless from now on.
Meteor0id
changed the title
same as in previous commit, but this time mono. Also cut the lenght of the silence at the end of the busy sound so the start silence + end silence matches the interval of the sound. If looped properly it will should be seemless.
Add a low profile 'call ended' sound. Deliberately very simple and low profile. The sound should only be an audible indicator, and should not in any way distract for the final words or sounds of the call. I chose not to mimic the Android Q sound with two toneheights, because multiple toneheight will take up a more concious place in the users mind, which is an unnessesary distraction form the content of the call. I decided not to follow the iPhone call ended sound, because it consists of three shot beeps, and such intermittened sounds could more easily be confused with a waiting or reconnecting sound. This is a .6s 270Hz tone followed by .4s silence. The track is mono. Generated using Audacity.
Meteor0id
changed the title
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Help wanted: still require some code to play the "call ended" sound at the end of a phone and video call. |
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Maybe I should rework the connecting sound, so it is more distinct from calling? I imagine if this sound would play in the middle of a conversation because connection was interrupted, it might sound like Signal is suddenly calling someone else. I am thinking I make the sound slightly shorter and loop slightly faster. |
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Is this still relevant? If so, what is blocking it? Is there anything you can do to help move it forward? This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. |
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The enganced sound files are still useful to Signal, and there is still no way for visually impaired to differentiate between connecting and ringing, this issue is waiting for assistance and feedback from Signals developers. |
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At least the noise-minimized audio files for ringing and busy should be used. |
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Where did the sound files come from? My initial worry is proper attribution/copyright. My next worry is buy in from design/product. I know for sure Desktop has been working with product on using new sounds recently, and may be something we pull in from them. |
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@cody-signal cody I pulled those files of this very github repository and edited them with Audacity. The new files were created in Audacity without importing anything. That's all. Audacitys licence permits using it for this purpose and I don't claim any copyright or other rights either. I had just noticed when I was calling someone using Signal that the audio files contained noice and took a few minutes to vorrect that so that's how these files came to exist. I wanted to preserve the autentic old phone sound but without the white noice. This PR was initially also a response to the connecting sound being removed. I think that was a mistake because it was useful to users with poor sight to hear the difference between connecting and ringing. I read that Greyson removed the sonar ping because it was confusing and made ringing sound like it took too long, so I came up with a new audio file which sounds a lot like the ringing sound but with a very slightly shorter ring, so those who pay attention can just barely hear the difference. I'm not a coder though, and don't feel comfortable writing the code required to implement a connecting sound. |
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This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions. |
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The noice-reduced audio files themselves are certainly still useful. The issue of missing an audable difference between ringing and connecting also still exists. |
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This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions. |
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I tested the two audio files. https://github.com/Sgn-32/Signal-Android/tree/fix_Meteor0id_enhance_ringing_sounds @Meteor0id Maybe clear your master and commit a fresh PR? |
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I've brought this up with design a few times, but it doesn't seem they're interested in it. If you want to rebase and fix merge conflicts I can do it one last time and go from there. |
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This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions. |
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This issue has been closed due to inactivity. |
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Fixes #1234syntaxDescription
Removing the Sonar Ping sound has left some users unhappy, because they can no longer hear an audible difference between the connecting phase and the ringing phase. @geyson-signal argued that the sound was not necessary, but did make the call seem longer which could be a negative experience (https://community.signalusers.org/t/beta-feedback-for-the-upcoming-android-4-33-release/5880/23?u=meteor0id) . From reactions in the following days it became apparent some kind of distinct sound is actually preferred by some users, and I think that especially the visually impaired would greatly benefit from this difference, since they might not be able to reply on the textual difference on their call screen. As a solution, in this PR I propose to revert the changes made when removing sonar ping, but instead of the sonar ping sound use a sound which is much closer to the ringing sound itself. The idea is that anyone who doesn't care to hear the difference won't, but someone who pays attention to it can clearly hear it. The new connecting sound is identical to the ringing sound with the sole exeption being that the connecting sound is slightly shorter than the ringing sound (and thus also loops a bit faster).
I have also taken the opportunity to preform some noise reduction on the ringing and busy sounds. I have done this using audacity. I have take great care to preserve the old and authentic sound of the ringing sounds, while reducing the static, and making the quiet actually quiet. The timing of the tracks has also been perfected, to assure the looping is seamless from now on.
Excuse my ugly attempt to update my own master branch. GitHub isn't my thing.