Developer Builds Low-Power Android App That Auto-Silences Phone by Location

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A developer created Muffle, an Android app that automatically adjusts phone sound profiles based on the user's physical location, eliminating the need for manual volume management. The app uses Google Play Services' GeofencingClient instead of continuous GPS polling, keeping battery consumption low by triggering alerts only when a location boundary is crossed. To ensure reliable execution under Android's background restrictions and Doze mode, the architecture chains a PendingIntent, BroadcastReceiver, and ForegroundService to deliver AudioManager commands. A key challenge emerged with custom Android ROMs from certain manufacturers, whose aggressive battery optimization settings blocked the BroadcastReceiver before it could act on geofence events. The developer ultimately had to prompt users to manually exempt the app from battery optimizations, a compromise that undermined the intended zero-setup experience.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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