Why don't MacOS, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS have 100 volume settings, unlike Windows and Linux?

[38034580]

MacOS and iOS has 16 volume settings (excluding 0).

Android has 15 volume settings (excluding 0).

ChromeOS have 25 volume settings (excluding 0).

Other OSes, like Windows and Linux, have 100 volume settings (excluding 0).

Why don't every OS have 100 volume settings?

[manikyath]

because 100 volume settings is utterly useless, other than for the sake of expressing volume in "percent".

[NumLock21]

And VLC can go over 100 in volume Settings.

[CommanderAlex]

My only hypothesis is they want to keep the OS "light" to run efficiently on a small battery-powered device. 

[38034580]

Just now, CommanderAlex said:

My only hypothesis is they want to keep the OS "light" to run efficiently on a small battery-powered device. 

Then why does Windows, even on laptops, still have 100 volume settings?

[Slottr]

Just now, 38034580 said:

Then why does Windows, even on laptops, still have 100 volume settings?

It’s just a design thing.

[CommanderAlex]

Just now, 38034580 said:

Then why does Windows, even on laptops, still have 100 volume settings?

There are bigger batteries in laptops then say, a phone or tablet. Another thing is developers of OSes may not want to code all of those settings into the OS on these devices and the majority of users will not care about these settings. 

[duncannah]

macOS does have more fine control over the volume using sliders:

 

It's quicker to set the volume with the media keys on the keyboard if there aren't 100 settings to go through, so that's why it's done like that.

On macOS, you can hold Shift and Option while pressing the media keys to have more granular control.

On mobile (both iOS and Android) you can touch the volume slider after it's brought up using the volume keys to fine tune it better.

[Cyracus]

24 minutes ago, 38034580 said:

Android and ChromeOS have 25 volume settings (excluding 0)

My android phone has 15.

But to answer your question, convenience. On a phone 100 volume steps becomes burdensome. 8 steps from 50% to full is pretty good, 50 steps is a lot, even if you're holding the button down it's gonna take a few seconds. And for what, the ability to make the numbers go up and down by one on a 100 scale, like there's even going to be a noticeable difference between 68 and 69?
Much better to have the volume steps be larger where the difference between one step and the next is discernible and user input isn't tedious.
Windows has been around for ages using the 0-100 volume metric, changing it would create a lot of issues.

 

[Kilrah]

It's so you don't have to press 30 times to get to the correct level.

 

But I agree that some go the opposite way with too few big steps and on my android/BT headphone combo so many times the "right" level would be between 2 steps and it's highly frustrating. Way prefer the 100 steps even if it takes holding the button a tad longer.

[KaitouX]

9 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

It's so you don't have to press 30 times to get to the correct level.

 

But I agree that some go the opposite way with too few big steps and on my android/BT headphone combo so many times the "right" level would be between 2 steps and it's highly frustrating. Way prefer the 100 steps even if it takes holding the button a tad longer.

I have the issue that IEMs and low impedance hedphones are usually too loud on the lowest volume in my phone. For me the ideal solution would be for the button to act like it does currently, but to be able to manually change the volume in a more granular way by using the slider in the screen. Or to just have the option to change the number of steps, that would work too.

[AnonymousGuy]

25 minutes ago, KaitouX said:

I have the issue that IEMs and low impedance hedphones are usually too loud on the lowest volume in my phone. For me the ideal solution would be for the button to act like it does currently, but to be able to manually change the volume in a more granular way by using the slider in the screen. Or to just have the option to change the number of steps, that would work too.

iOS already does this since iOS 12 or something.  You can press-hold the slider in the control panel to adjust it as fine as you want.  Same thing if you adjust the volume with the buttons you can touch-slide it when it pops up.

 

I think the second part may have been in a newer iOS and the control panel adjustment may have been there forever.

[KaitouX]

1 minute ago, AnonymousGuy said:

iOS already does this since iOS 12 or something.  You can press-hold the slider in the control panel to adjust it as fine as you want.  Same thing if you adjust the volume with the buttons you can touch-slide it when it pops up.

 

I think the second part may have been in a newer iOS and the control panel adjustment may have been there forever.

Not sure how it currently is on newer Android versions and iOS, but on my Sony XZ1 while it looks like you can fine tune the volume, it doesn't actually change, so even if I manually move the slide to half of the minimum volume step, it doesn't lower the volume.

[Kilrah]

On the various android phones I've had while you can move the slider with the finger it didn't actually give more steps, it just snapped to the same ones you'd get with the volume buttons...

[Nayr438]

5 hours ago, Kilrah said:

On the various android phones I've had while you can move the slider with the finger it didn't actually give more steps, it just snapped to the same ones you'd get with the volume buttons...

You would be right. It just snaps to the closest step. The only way I know to change this is to have a rooted device and adjust the step configuration in build.prop, which I believe defaults to 15. It is a setting however that manufacturers could change if they so wanted, so it could vary between devices.

 

For anyone wondering, the entries for build.prob are as follows

ro.config.vc_call_vol_steps=
ro.config.media_vol_steps=
ro.config.alarm_vol_steps=
ro.config.system_vol_steps=

Reference: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/5e851cf9d895ec23e52dc32a6091480e584d0980/services/core/java/com/android/server/audio/AudioService.java

 

As to the answer to the original question, its been answered. Its convenience. Most people don't need that much control and having less steps lets me reach a reasonable audio target much quicker.