why do apps ignore general sound modes?

[McVitas]

Hello, this is a bit strange to me I have this one game with a pretty loud train intro animation. I don't always want to disturb with this sound when starting a game, so I held the button and changed to vibrate mode. To my surprise the game still did the sound when started! And it does the same when I switch the phone to silent mode (the first speaker with a cross icon). So I wonder why don't these modes apply to apps? This UI functionality does not seem very logical to me and can lead to a bit embarrasing situations. 

[_alexdon_]

Apps obey to media sounds,not system sounds.Why is that,not sure.

[McVitas]

Is that so in Xperia phones or general Android behaves like this? I believe my previous Xiaomi Mi2s silenced everything when set to vibrate.

[_alexdon_]

@Rickard Maybe you can explain it buddy. I think it applies to xperias.

[Rickard]

I can't answer for other brands but i believe this is standard for Android and it's how it works in Xperia.

You have 3 volume controls in your phone:

- ring volume and notfications (i've heard that some phones may have separate controls for these two)

- media volume

- alarm volume

If you press the volume key while not playing any media sound you will adjust the ring volume and notifications. Silent mode will also not affect the media volume. If you press the volume keys while media sound is playing you will however adjust the media volume. This is why it doesn't help pressing the volume key before starting the game.

In this case you need to go to Settings -> Sound -> Volumes and lower the volume for music, video, games and other media before starting the game.

[SomeQuickAdvice]

Media sound is not affected by the sound modes. Sound modes are for notificaitons and ring volumes only. This is android vanilla behavior.  

[McVitas]

Hmm, does it change in Lollipop?

https://youtu.be/3Cd7tkrLUbw?t=1m59s

BTW on my previous Xiaomi Mi2s with MIUI setting the phone to vibrate or silent DID prevent anything from breaking the silence, so in that MIUI is better IMHO