iOS 9: How to change volume programmatically without showing system sound bar popup?

For 2018, working on iOS 11.4

You need to change slider.value after a small delay.

extension MPVolumeView {
  static func setVolume(_ volume: Float) {
    let volumeView = MPVolumeView()
    let slider = volumeView.subviews.first(where: { $0 is UISlider }) as? UISlider

    DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: DispatchTime.now() + 0.01) {
      slider?.value = volume
    }
  }
}

Usage:

MPVolumeView.setVolume(0.5)

Objective-C version

MPVolumeView has a slider, and by changing the value of the slider, you can change the device volume. I wrote an MPVolumeView extension to easily access the slider:

extension MPVolumeView {
    var volumeSlider:UISlider {
        self.showsRouteButton = false
        self.showsVolumeSlider = false
        self.hidden = true
        var slider = UISlider()
        for subview in self.subviews {
            if subview.isKindOfClass(UISlider){
                slider = subview as! UISlider
                slider.continuous = false
                (subview as! UISlider).value = AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().outputVolume
                return slider
            }
        }
        return slider
    }
}

extension UIViewController {
  func setVolumeStealthily(_ volume: Float) {
    guard let view = viewIfLoaded else {
      assertionFailure("The view must be loaded to set the volume with no UI")
      return
    }

    let volumeView = MPVolumeView(frame: .zero)

    guard let slider = volumeView.subviews.first(where: { $0 is UISlider }) as? UISlider else {
      assertionFailure("Unable to find the slider")
      return
    }

    volumeView.clipsToBounds = true
    view.addSubview(volumeView)

    DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: DispatchTime.now() + 0.1) { [weak slider, weak volumeView] in
      slider?.setValue(volume, animated: false)
      DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: DispatchTime.now() + 0.1) { [weak volumeView] in
        volumeView?.removeFromSuperview()
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage:

// set volume to 50%
viewController.setVolume(0.5)