I recently bought some headphones which has a small block on it with +/- buttons that are meant to adjust volume. This functionality works on my android phone and the volume on the phone changes when I press those buttons.
However, it does not work when I plug the headphones into my Windows 10 laptop and try to adjust the volume on the laptop with the built-in headphone controls.
Is there a way to allow Windows 10 to recognize the headphone volume control inputs?
2 Answers
To put it simply: Your computer doesn't have the same headphone port your phone does.
You should be able to confirm this in the system technical documentation, but the short version is this:
Count the number of individual sections on your headphone plug: Your phone probably has individual connectors for each section and so can utilize all the features of the headphones.
Your computer does NOT have connectors for each section, and so the headphones when connected to the computer are less capable than they are when connected to your phone.
Little background about how it works:Headphones use specific electrical signalling usually through the microphone part of the 4-pin jack connector, and they also use a simple circuit where the volume buttons are. They produce distinct impulses that the smartphone handles to perform the requested action (including for example call pick-up). However, hardware-wise this may not be uniform (different brands of headphones may use different signals for volume control). As far as I know, apple and android headphones have sometimes even reversed ground and microphone pin (CTIA standard and OMTP standard)
The answer:It is possible, however the equipment required is not usually present in the computer (motherboard of the computer). You would probably need some box/external sound card that has that 4-pin jack connector and can interface the computer through, let's say USB, so that it can perform macros (just like programmable buttons on a mouse). This sound card would need to distinguish the variety of impulses generated by headphones to perform the correct action (vol. up, vol. down) in the OS. You need to search for such a product, if it is even on the market. (It is a bit technical, sorry.)
