Around Sound - Have your phone listen while you enjoy music or movies

Around Sound allows you to listen to music or watch movies and still be aware of your surroundings. It's meant for when you're using sound isolating earbuds like Shure or others that are basically earplugs so you have no idea what's going on around you.

It uses the mic on your headset or phone to listen around you. You set how loud a noise needs to be to trigger it. When a loud sound is detected, it pauses your music or movie for a timeout period. During this time, it feeds the outside sound through to your headphones so you can hear what's going on. After the timeout period it then resumes playback.

Play Store Link:
Free Version


Some known issues:
1. Audio lag - when the outside sound is fed through there's about a 500ms delay. It's a known issue with Android. It's rumored to have been fixed in Jelly Bean (or there's some low level API's available to fix it) but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.

2. Bluetooth Mic Option - Currently only works with mono headsets and not the AD2P kind

Some use cases:
- At the office: pause your music automatically when someone is trying to get your attention
- At home: Don't miss door slams, children crying, your dog barking, or other warning signs


- At the airport: Relax at the gate and have your music or movie pause when the gate announcements start


- Anywhere relatively quiet where you want to know if something happens around you

Permissions Needed:
Network Communications: Full Internet Access (For Ad Supported Version)
Phone Calls: Read Phone status (shuts off the audio processing during calls)
Hardware Controls: Audio Settings, Record Audio (to use the microphone, no audio is ever stored)
Coarse Location(Not GPS): For Ad Supported Version
Write External Storage: For Ad Supported Version
Billing: For in app upgrades
Bluetooth: For Bluetooth mic feature
Broadcast Sticky: For Bluetooth mic feature

Limitations:


-Needs Froyo or Above (Android version 2.2+)
-For Pause Music Mode: You can't be in a really loud environment otherwise the microphone input will be maxed out and there is no way to detect a louder sound. Use Street Mode instead

Coming Soon:
Timeout period Adjustment
Volume control of mic feed during timeout

Developed on a Samsung Galaxy SIII