Physical volume buttons cannot be blocked: hiding Sound in Esper Settings is insufficient to prevent volume adjustment

Android

When you hide the Sound page in Esper Settings via a Blueprint, users can still adjust device volume using the physical volume buttons on the side of the device.

Why this happens

Hiding Sound in Esper Settings removes volume controls from the Esper Settings UI only. The physical volume buttons are handled directly by the Android operating system and the device manufacturer's firmware — Esper Blueprints do not interact with hardware button behavior or Android's native audio stack.

Hide the Sound page in Esper Settings

If removing volume controls from the on-screen UI is sufficient for your use case, follow these steps:

In the Esper Console, navigate to Blueprints → [Blueprint Name] → Esper Settings → Device Settings → Sound.
Set the Sound page visibility to Hidden. This prevents users from accessing volume controls inside the Esper Settings app, but does not affect the physical buttons.
Save the blueprint and apply it to the relevant device groups under Devices & Groups.

Verify: Open Esper Settings on an enrolled device. The Sound option should no longer appear in the menu. Note that pressing the physical volume buttons will still change volume levels — this is expected behavior given the limitation described above.

Options for blocking physical volume buttons

Esper Blueprints do not support suppressing hardware volume keys. The following alternatives exist depending on your device and application setup:

OEM enterprise APIs: Some manufacturers — including Samsung (Knox), Zebra, and Honeywell — provide proprietary MDM APIs that can intercept or remap physical volume keys. Check your device manufacturer's enterprise developer documentation to confirm availability. Configuring these APIs is outside the scope of standard Esper Blueprints.
App-level interception: If your deployed app runs in a kiosk or single-app environment, your development team can override the onKeyDown event handler in the app's source code to suppress volume button input at the application layer. This requires access to the application's source code.

If this doesn't resolve it

If neither alternative is suitable for your deployment, contact Esper Support with the following information:

Device manufacturer and model
Android OS version on the affected devices
A description of your kiosk or deployment configuration

This helps the support team identify whether a device-specific workaround is available for your fleet.

Still need help?

If you're unable to block physical volume buttons on your Esper-managed devices, submit a support ticket and include your device model, Android version, and Esper app version along with details about which volume controls remain accessible despite hiding Sound in Esper Settings.