How do I stop my phone from ringing through my Bluetooth speaker?
What Happens When Your Phone Rings Through Bluetooth
When your phone is paired to a Bluetooth speaker or headset, the audio routing for calls is set to “automatic” by default. This means that when you receive an incoming call, the ringtone will play through both your phone’s speakers and the connected Bluetooth device.
The ringtone routing occurs because Bluetooth allows your phone to maintain two simultaneous audio connections – one for media like music and another for phone calls. So even if you’re streaming music to your Bluetooth speaker, an incoming call can still route the ringtone to interrupt the audio.
According to Apple’s support documentation, “Your iPhone will route call audio based on the ‘Call Audio Routing’ settings.” This means the phone is designed to push the ringtone to available audio sources when a call comes in (Apple).
Check Bluetooth Device Volume Settings
The first thing to check is the volume settings on the Bluetooth speaker itself. Most Bluetooth speakers will have physical volume buttons or a volume dial that can be used to adjust the loudness.
If your phone’s ringtone is very loud through the Bluetooth speaker, the volume on the speaker itself may be turned up too high. Try turning down the volume on the speaker and see if that helps reduce the ringtone volume.
You’ll usually find the volume controls located on the top, side, or back of the Bluetooth speaker. Refer to the speaker’s manual if you’re unsure where the physical volume controls are.
Turning down the speaker’s volume should prevent your phone’s ringtone from blasting at full volume. You can then adjust the speaker volume back up to a comfortable level for music or calls without having the ringtone be overly loud.
For more information on adjusting Bluetooth speaker volume, see this guide: How to Make a Bluetooth Speaker Louder.
Adjust Incoming Call Volume on Phone
One of the easiest ways to stop your phone from ringing loudly through a Bluetooth speaker is to turn down the incoming call volume on your smartphone. On an iPhone, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics and locate the section for Incoming Calls. Drag the slider to reduce the volume to an acceptable level for your Bluetooth speaker setup (1). You can also try turning off ‘Change with Buttons’ so the volume buttons don’t override your settings when on a call.
For Android devices, open the Settings app and go to Sound. Look for Media volume or Call volume and drag the slider down to reduce volume. You may need to experiment to find the right volume level that works for your Bluetooth speaker and environment (2). Just remember to turn it back up for normal handset use.
Turning down the ringing volume on your phone prevents loud disruptions coming through the Bluetooth speaker without having to fully disconnect your devices. Just be sure to adjust the volume up again when not using the speaker to avoid missing calls.
Unpair and Re-Pair Devices
One potential solution to stop your phone from ringing loudly through your Bluetooth speaker is to unpair the devices and then re-pair them. Unpairing removes the existing Bluetooth connection between two devices. This can reset any settings that may be causing the loud ringing issue.
To unpair your phone and Bluetooth speaker:
- On your phone, go to Settings > Bluetooth and tap the “i” icon next to your speaker.
- Tap “Forget This Device” to unpair it.
- On your Bluetooth speaker, find the pairing or Bluetooth menu. Select the option to remove or unpair devices.
- Choose your phone from the list to unpair it.
Now you can re-pair the phone and speaker:
- On your phone, go back to Settings > Bluetooth and turn Bluetooth on.
- Put your Bluetooth speaker in pairing mode so it’s discoverable.
- On your phone, select your speaker when it appears in the list to re-pair.
Once paired again, test to see if your speaker still rings loudly. The unpairing process may have resolved any glitches that were causing the issue. If the problem persists, you can move on to other solutions.
Some helpful tips on unpairing and repairing Bluetooth devices can be found in this Android Central forum post: https://forums.androidcentral.com/threads/how-do-i-recover-an-unpaired-bluetooth-device-that-i-deleted.479943/
Disable Media Audio Routing
One way to prevent your phone’s ringtone from playing through your Bluetooth speaker is to disable media audio routing for the Bluetooth connection. This stops your phone from routing the ringing sound through the Bluetooth audio channel that is used for playing media like music or podcasts.
On Android devices, you can disable media audio separately from calls or other audio routing in the Bluetooth options for paired devices. Go to Settings > Connected devices > Bluetooth. Tap the settings icon next to your paired Bluetooth speaker. Look for an option like “Media audio” or “Media volume” and toggle it off. This will keep the Bluetooth connection active for phone calls, but prevent it from taking over your ringtone audio [1].
Similarly, in Windows you can go to Settings > Devices > Bluetooth and right-click your paired speaker. Select “Settings” and toggle “Play audio” to Off. This will stop your ringtone from playing through that Bluetooth device while leaving the connection intact for calls [2].
Disabling media audio routing prevents your speaker from taking over as the ringtone audio output, while still allowing you to use the speaker for phone calls. This targeted approach stops the ringing through Bluetooth without disconnecting it completely.
Turn Off Phone Ringtone
A simple way to prevent your phone from ringing through your Bluetooth speaker is to turn off the ringtone on your phone. On an iPhone, you can toggle the ring/silent switch on the side to mute incoming calls and switch the phone into silent mode (Apple Support). This will stop any ringtone from playing when you receive a call, so it won’t play through your Bluetooth speaker either.
You can also set your iPhone ringtone to “None” in your sound settings. Open Settings > Sounds (or Sounds & Haptics on newer models), and under Ringtone, select “None.” This will disable your ringtone so calls come through silently (OS X Daily).
With no ringtone set, your phone will not ring audibly for incoming calls. As a result, no ringtone can play through your connected Bluetooth speaker. Keep in mind you may still get vibration alerts and see the incoming call on your screen.
Use Do Not Disturb While Connected
One option to stop your phone from ringing through your Bluetooth speaker is to enable the Do Not Disturb While Connected setting. This silences notifications when your phone is connected to certain Bluetooth devices.
On Android phones, you can go to Settings > Sounds (or Notifications) > Do Not Disturb > Turn on Automatic Rules > Add Rule > Select Bluetooth Device to create a rule that enables Do Not Disturb when connected to your Bluetooth speaker [1]. This will silence incoming call ringtones and notifications.
On iPhones, you can go to Settings > Do Not Disturb > Activate to enable Do Not Disturb, then toggle on “Silence” under the “Bluetooth” section. This will silence incoming calls and notifications when connected to a Bluetooth device like a speaker [2].
The Do Not Disturb While Connected setting essentially mutes any distracting rings and sounds that would normally play through your speaker when you get a call or notification. Just make sure to set your allowed contacts or emergency settings appropriately.
Turn Off Bluetooth
One of the most straightforward ways to prevent your phone from ringing through your Bluetooth speaker is to simply turn off Bluetooth on your phone. When Bluetooth is disabled, your phone will no longer be able to connect to your Bluetooth speaker or route audio through it. As a result, your phone’s ringer will revert back to the phone’s built-in speaker.
To turn off Bluetooth on an iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth and toggle the switch off. On Android devices, go to Settings > Connected Devices > Connection Preferences > Bluetooth and turn it off. You can also pull down the Quick Settings panel on Android phones and tap the Bluetooth icon to disable it.
According to this Lifewire article, turning off Bluetooth completely prevents any audio routing until it is turned back on. So if you want to stop your ringer coming through your speaker, disabling Bluetooth is a simple and effective solution. Just keep in mind you won’t be able to play music or take calls through the speaker either while Bluetooth is off.
Use a Different Speaker
Using a non-Bluetooth speaker is an easy fix that prevents your phone audio from routing over and playing through your Bluetooth speaker.
Bluetooth speakers wirelessly connect with your phone, allowing both media audio and phone ringtones to be heard through the speaker. This can be surprising and disruptive if you only want to play music but your phone suddenly rings loudly over the speaker.
Switching to a non-Bluetooth speaker that simply plugs into an audio jack or relies on WiFi will prevent this automatic audio routing. Your phone rings will remain solely on your phone when using speakers without Bluetooth connectivity.
There are some tradeoffs as wired and WiFi speakers lose the convenience and portability of Bluetooth. However, you gain more separation between your phone alerts and speaker playback. Consider options like bookshelf speakers, computer speakers, or WiFi speakers as easy alternatives.
Adjust Incoming Call Alerts
One way to make your phone ring quieter through Bluetooth is to customize the ringtone or alert tones for incoming calls. On an iPhone, you can set unique ringtones for individual contacts in the Contacts app.
To do this, open the Contacts app and tap on the contact you want to customize. Then tap “Edit” in the upper right corner. From here, you can tap “Ringtone” and select a custom ringtone for that contact from your ringtones library. Choose a subtle, quieter ringtone that will be less jarring coming through your Bluetooth speaker.
You can also customize text tone alerts for contacts this same way. So when that contact texts you, it will play a quieter alert sound than your normal text tone. This helps identify callers with less disruptive sounds.
For Android phones, you can customize ringtones for contacts through the Contacts app or Phone app settings. Look for options like “Set ringtone” or “Contact ringtone.”
By personalizing ringtones for frequent callers, you can identify who’s getting in touch without loud rings blasting through your speaker.