Controlling Android Device Volume via AudioManager and ADB Commands

In the 360 testing platform, it is necessary to control the volume of Android devices to prevent audio from videos, music, or games from disturbing the office environment while still allowing audio and video recording scripts to run.

Android developers can use AudioManager.setStreamMute and AudioManager.getStreamVolume to adjust volume, but on Android 7.0+ the app must request the ACCESS_NOTIFICATION_POLICY and MODIFY_PHONE_STATE permissions, which are difficult for automation scripts.

The article examines the source code of AudioManager , showing that it ultimately calls the system service IAudioService.setStreamVolume with three parameters: int streamType , int index , and int flags .

Because reflective calls are complex, the author demonstrates using ADB commands to control volume directly. For Android 8.0 (API 26) and above, the command is:

adb shell media volume --show --stream 3 --set 1

For Android 5.1 (API 22) the command is:

adb shell service call audio 4 i32 <streamType> i32 <index> i32 0

To query the current volume, the following ADB calls are used:

service call audio 13 i32 <streamType>

The article provides Java helper methods that generate the appropriate command strings based on the device’s SDK version:

public String setAudioCMD(int type, int volume) {
    String cmd = "";
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT == 22) {
        cmd = String.format("service call audio 4 i32 %d i32 %d i32 0", type, volume);
    } else if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 23 && Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= 25) {
        cmd = String.format("service call audio 3 i32 %d i32 %d i32 0", type, volume);
    } else if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 26) {
        cmd = String.format("media volume --show --stream %d --set %d", type, volume);
    }
    return cmd;
}

public String getAudioCMD(int type) {
    String cmd = "";
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT == 22) {
        cmd = String.format("service call audio 13 i32 %d", type);
    } else if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT == 23) {
        cmd = String.format("service call audio 9 i32 %d", type);
    } else if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT == 24 || Build.VERSION.SDK_INT == 25) {
        cmd = String.format("service call audio 8 i32 %d", type);
    } else if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 26) {
        cmd = String.format("media volume --show --stream %d --get", type);
    }
    return cmd;
}

Sample output shows successful volume control for devices with Android ≥8.0 (e.g., volume 6 in range 0‑15) and for older devices where the raw parcel result must be interpreted (e.g., hex 0x00000009 equals volume 9).

References include a link to an Android source code browsing site for further investigation.