Sound Playing Through Ear Speaker Only + Pop up Volume Bar

My phone is playing sounds through the ear speaker and not the loud speaker and no I do not mean both. I’ve tried to fix it but most times it stops on its own but reappears quite often to my annoyance.

Also, sometimes the sound bar appears on the screen and begins to adjust the volume up on down. By this I mean it’s just moving up and down but the actual volume isn’t affected. I thought it was a sound check but it has been happening way too frequently. Whenever it’s happening the phone basically freezes or slows down. Can anyone or APPLE kindly advise?