Android: continuous listening stops after silence timeout auto-restart workaround + beep fix for Android 15

[surajpatil05]

Problem

Android's SpeechRecognizer stops automatically after a few seconds of silence there's no official API to keep it alive. On Android 15 (Realme P3, ColorOS), every speech.listen() call also triggers an audible beep via STREAM_SYSTEM, making auto-restart unusable without a fix.

Root Cause

• SpeechRecognizer enforces a silence timeout with no opt-out flag
• speech.listen() triggers a system beep on Android 15 some OEMs also route it through STREAM_NOTIFICATION and STREAM_RING
• The Google Speech Recognition service entry in the manifest independently triggers audio feedback

Fix

1. Auto-restart loop
Listen for onStatus ('done' / 'notListening') and onError callbacks, then immediately call speech.listen() again, accumulating text across restarts.

2. Audio muting with 300ms delay
Before every speech.listen(), mute STREAM_SYSTEM, STREAM_NOTIFICATION, and STREAM_RING via AudioManager — then wait 300ms before calling speech.listen(). The delay is critical; 100ms is not enough for the audio subsystem to apply the mute before the beep fires.

3. Manifest fix
Remove the Google Speech Recognition service entry via tools:node="remove" in AndroidManifest.xml to stop the beep at its source.

Tested On

• Device: Realme P3 — Android 15 (ColorOS)
• Result: ✅ No beep, seamless continuous listening

References

• 📝 [Full implementation guide on Medium]
• 💻 [Working demo app on GitHub]

Proposal

Would love to raise a PR adding a continuousListening: true flag to listen() so this is strictly opt-in. Happy to proceed if the maintainer is open to it.