com.google.android.accessibility.soundamplifier Copy

Labelled "Sound Amplifier" in English, with a Dutch equivalent also recorded on this site, this is Google's hearing accessibility app. Google publishes a Play listing at this package name which describes it as making conversations and surrounding sounds more accessible to people who are hard of hearing, using an Android phone and a pair of headphones to "filter, augment and amplify sounds around you and on your device". Google's accessibility help states that it is already installed on Pixel 3 and above and on selected Android devices, and can be downloaded from Google Play on others. On this site it is recorded on Pixel models from Pixel 6 to Pixel 10 Pro and on one realme model (RMX2001), across OS API levels 30 to 37. Where this site holds signer data, which is the Google make only, it is signed by two Google-classified keys that do not sign the Android framework. The help page reaches it through Settings, Accessibility, Sound Amplifier and describes a setting, "Show icon in the app list", for adding it to the app list, so it may not appear as a launcher icon unless the user asks for one. The Play listing's permissions notice states that microphone access lets it process audio for amplification and filtering and that "No data is collected or stored", and that because the app is an accessibility service it "can observe your actions, retrieve window content and observe text that you type". This site records it requesting microphone, camera, audio settings and internet permissions among others; the help page's conversation mode has the user point the phone's camera at the person speaking. This site aggregates permissions across observations rather than per build, so which builds declare each of them cannot be established. Version note: the Play listing gives the requirement as Android 8.1 and later. Google's help limits conversation mode to Pixel 3 and later and states that amplifying media playing on the device "is available for Pixel phones with Android 10". No later change in the app's role tied to a specific Android release was found in the sources cited here. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use no management role is identified in the sources cited here, but it is an accessibility aid, and removing it may take away something a user relies on to hear. The Android Management API documents a permittedAccessibilityServices policy: when that field is set, only the listed accessibility services and the system's built-in accessibility service can be used. Whether a preinstalled Sound Amplifier counts as built-in for that purpose could not be sourced, so an organisation setting that list should test whether this package needs to be on it. Treat disabling it as an accessibility decision rather than a clean-up step.

• Sound Amplifier - Google Play listing →
• Sound Amplifier: Amplify surrounding speech and on-device audio - Android Accessibility Help →
• Policy resource (permittedAccessibilityServices) - Android Management API →
• Package provenance for com.google.android.accessibility.soundamplifier - Android System App Database →

• Signed by Google's own signing key (the same key Google uses across devices), so it is a Google-provided preinstall that updates independently of the system image, though 2 different Google signing keys appear across the fleet.
• Its largest observed manifest declares 18 permissions: 3 runtime (user-granted), 8 install-time and 7 vendor or uncatalogued.
• APK size ranges from 15.6 MB to 29.2 MB across the reporting device profiles, so the build differs substantially between them.
• Reported as an updated system app in 49 of 51 observations - a newer build was installed over the one in the system image. Multiple observations can come from the same device profile.