Wednesday, April 22, 2020

3am Audio Hack - Playing Lullabies and Netflix at the Same Time

Years ago, as we prepared to take on our first Foster Placement, I read this book. One piece of advice from this text has stuck with me:

There are no maintenance tasks with a baby.

That is, while diaper changing or feeding a little one a bottle may feel like work can be done on autopilot, it's worth striving to avoid this. These so called 'maintenance moments' are in fact a opportunities to connect and be present with the one you're caring for.

Over the years, this advice has served me well. But I also have to admit, even I have my limits. When it's 3am and I'm rocking a little one back to sleep for the 4th time, I think I can be forgiven for wanting to unplug from the moment. And that's what my latest hack is all about.

Did you know that on Samsung devices, you can go to: Settings » Sound and Vibration » Separate App Sound to configure your phone such that one app plays audio through the speaker and other apps play through a Bluetooth headset?

Why is this useful and what does this have to do with rocking a baby to sleep at 3am?

Using this setting you can softly be playing lullabies via Amazon Music on your phone's speaker, while binge watching a TV show on Netflix using a pair of Bluetooth headphones.

Just remember: with great power comes great responsibility; So use with care.

The Separate Sounds functionality should also be useful for solving the age old problem of having Google Maps navigation be announced via the phone's speaker, while a podcast plays via Bluetooth audio. Got to love these non-standard, random'ish features manufacturers add to Android OS.

No comments:

Post a Comment