Any way to disable audio ducking? (Android)

[GravelBen]

Audio ducking (when the audio goes quiet for a few seconds when you get a notification) is a horrible abomination of a thing and I want to turn it off (or kill it with fire), but I can't find any setting that lets me disable it in my phone or app settings.

I've tried searching the internet for answers but haven't found anything more useful than 'mute your notifications', which is not what I want to do. I just want the notification to sound quietly as normal without screwing with my music volume and annoying me. It does it when playing in car via bluetooth too.

Phone is a Sony Xperia XZ with Android 8.0 - not the latest and greatest, but for the most part I still like it and don't have any urge to update.

I've tried a few different audio player apps and haven't found one yet with an option to turn ducking off for notifications, but if you know of one that has that option I'm all ears.

Any clever ideas?

[The_Jackal]

Odds are it is built into the OS.
I think you are left with just tweaking how your notifications are set.
Modern versions of Android are more sophisticated with their notification settings.

[GravelBen]

Update: After trying a few more music player apps I found one called Rocket Player which has audio focus controls with the option to 'ignore other apps' or to choose between ducking or pausing audio if you do leave audio focus on.

From some quick testing the ignore option seems to have disabled the audio ducking while still allowing notifications, so thats a result.

Edited by GravelBen on Sunday 23 May 00:30