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Turning off app permissions for Bluetooth

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I am frustrated at the amount of battery drain by apps who use Bluetooth to play sound and music even when I mute sound and music within the app. It drains the battery and I can hear my aids go into Bluetooth mode (blocking out background sounds). There is nowhere to deny permission to apps to use bluetooth.

I’ve contacted the app developers who tell me to ask Google Play. Google Play tells me to contact the manufacturer. Samsung tells me to find a 3rd party app (no specific recommendations). All the 3rd party apps require a ridiculous amouny of permissions that I don’t feel comfortable with.

I know I can manually turn off bluetooth altogether but that affects other devices and then if I get a call it’s not through my hearing aids, plus I enjoy getting notifications through my aids, not out loud.

Feels like this should be easily solved but I can’t find a solution. If it matters, I use a Samsung Galaxy 22 Ultra.

Thanks!

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Yes, but I do not want to turn off Bluetooth nor deny certain devices access. I need my Bluetooth on so it’s available for notifications to go through my hearing aids and I can get phone calls on Bluetooth.

What I need is to deny certain apps access to Bluetooth as they are accessing and using Bluetooth even though I’ve turned off music and sounds in those specific apps and therefore there is no reason they need to access my Bluetooth and drain my hearing aid batteries.

Sorry. No solution but just letting you know that I have the same problem with my iPhone! It is frustrating!!

In reply to @BellaRoo

I have similar complaints with apps on the iPhone. I have settings configured to lower HA mic volume when I am streaming, but I have some apps that start an audio stream even if there is no audio. Some good examples: Amazon & Tesla. Both have the capability to search via microphone, but as soon as I open the app, my HA mics are turned down.
Similarly, I could stop that annoyance by turning off , but that defeats the whole point of having connected devices.

It’s easy on iphone just go to settings salect tthe app you want to slience and turn bluethooth off.

In reply to @BellaRoo

The phone uses bluetooth as the output destination for any app that produces sound. The apps dont actually “use” bluetooth directly. You can swipe down, look for Notifications or Notification settings (mine is at the bottom right). Click it, go down the list turning off notifications, app by app.

In reply to @BellaRoo

@BellaRoo said:

Yes, but I do not want to turn off Bluetooth nor deny certain devices access. I need my Bluetooth on so it’s available for notifications to go through my hearing aids and I can get phone calls on Bluetooth.

No solution. Personally, I’ve sacrificed the notifications, and just leave calls connected. My watch picks up the notifications. I switch Audio/streaming on when I want to stream. I find this the best compromise. I’ve also set my TV Connector, and Roger Direct to “manual selection with beep”, in Target, for the same reason.

Screenshot_20240202_190849_Settings

Peter

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply.

In the end, someone lead me to an app called Sound Assistant in the Samsung app store. The app let me decide which device to play the sounds through, so I can have Bluetooth on but those apps that previously used Bluetooth needlessly can now only use the phone audio, and it solved my problem. It only lets me control 5 apps I believe but my hearing aid life has been hugely improved. I used to be at 5 percent or less at bedtime and now it’s 30 percent or more. (Honestly most happy to not get the low battery warning beeps which I always felt were a hostile reminder that they were going to deny me my ability to hear, a tad dramatic yet true :slightly_smiling_face: )

Anyway thought I’d share as I’m not the only one feeling frustrated by it. It’s a free app and even though it only let me control 5 apps it was enough to solve my issue.

At the very bottom of the screen it said there was a “separate app sound”, and I followed that.

I didn’t find it very intuitive but it did work for me in the end and hopefully it’s helpful to you too.

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