After using the maps application for navigation, within an Android based mobile device, you may find that even though you have the speaker volume off and sound set to silent that incoming messages are still read out.

This can, at the least, be something of an inconvenience and, at worst, highly embarrassing particularly when in a customer meeting or, as happened to me, during a quiet part of a packed conference. No matter how many conferences or seminars we attend there is always at least one person with an “interesting ringtone”, or some other audible inconvenience, on their mobile device which chirps away at inopportune moments. Hopefully, this tip will prevent that person being you.

The issue seems to be caused by the text-to-speech function within Android (the version I experienced the issue on was Android 2.3.6). To fix this head into Settings, from the home screen, then “Voice input and output” and “Text-to-speech settings” under “Voice Output”. From here you can manually disable the option for “Driving mode” which, as the option says, causes “Incoming calls and new notifications will be read out automatically.”.

Don’t forget to re-enable the settings, when you head back to your car, if you still want the features.