How to change notification sound for only one app on Android?

Android provides the ability to customize the notification sound on your device for each individual app. This allows you to set different notification sounds, ringtones, and vibration patterns for your various apps. As explained in the MakeUseOf article, “How to Change Notification Sounds for Each App on Your Android Phone,” accessing the sound settings for each app lets you “set up custom sounds for all apps.”

Setting a unique notification sound for a single app can help differentiate its alerts from other notifications. As the Swrve article discusses, using customized notification sounds for your app helps make alerts stand out: “Sounds Amazing! (The Science Of Push Notification Noises).” This prioritizes key notifications and allows users to identify them quickly. Adjusting sounds on a per-app basis provides more customization and control over mobile alerts.

Prerequisites

To customize notification sounds for a single app on Android, there are two key prerequisites:

1. An Android phone running Android 9.0 (Pie) or higher – Notification settings were overhauled in Android 9, so this version or higher is needed to customize notification sounds per app.

2. An app that supports custom notification sounds – Most major apps including Facebook, WhatsApp, Gmail, and Twitter allow setting custom notification sounds, but some apps may not have this capability.

Before trying to customize an app’s notification sound, check that it meets those prerequisites. If your Android version is 8.0 or lower, it won’t be possible to make per-app notification changes. Some apps like Spotify also don’t currently support using custom notification sounds.

Access Notification Settings

To change the notification sound for a single app on Android, you first need to access the notification settings for that app. Here are the steps:

  1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
  2. Scroll down and tap “Apps & notifications” [1]
  3. Select the app you want to customize notifications for.
  4. Tap “Notifications.”

This will open the notification settings screen for the chosen app. From here, you can change the notification sound and configure other notification settings.

Change Notification Sound

To change the notification sound for a single app on your Android device:

  1. Open the Settings app and go to Apps & notifications > Notifications.
  2. Locate the app you want to change the notification sound for and tap on it.
  3. Tap on the option that says “Sound.” This will open up a list of all notification sounds available on your device.
  4. Scroll through the different notification sound options and select the one you want this app to use for notifications going forward. Tapping on a sound will play a preview so you can hear what it sounds like.
  5. Once you’ve selected your desired notification sound, tap “OK” to confirm the change.

The notification sound for that individual app is now changed. You can repeat this process for any other apps you want to set custom notification sounds for.

Set Notification Importance

The notification importance allows you to set how intrusive the notification will be. Android has several importance levels to choose from [1]:

  • Urgent – Makes a sound and peeks the notification at the top of the screen
  • High – Makes a sound and vibrates
  • Medium – No sound
  • Low – No sound or vibration

To change the notification importance in Android:

  1. Open the Settings app and go to Apps & notifications > Notifications
  2. Locate and tap on the app
  3. Scroll down and tap on Importance
  4. Select the level you want: Urgent, High, Medium or Low

Setting a higher importance level makes the notification more intrusive, while a lower setting makes it more subtle. Choose based on how critical you want notifications from that particular app.

Enable Notification Dots

Notification dots display a dot on the app icon when you have any unread notifications for that app. To enable this feature:

  1. Open the Settings app and go to Apps & notifications > Notifications.
  2. Find the app you want to enable notification dots for in the list and tap on it.
  3. Toggle on the “Allow notification dot” option.
  4. Now a dot will appear on the app icon on your home screen whenever you have unread notifications for that app.[1]

The notification dot provides a convenient visual indicator that you have pending notifications for a particular app. Tapping the app icon will open the notification drawer where you can view the notifications.

Adjust Additional Settings

You may want to customize additional notification settings for the app beyond just the sound. Here are some other options to consider:

  • Vibration – You can enable/disable vibration to accompany notifications.
  • Lights – Configure the notification light to flash for new notifications.
  • Popup on screen – Enable/disable notifications peeking or popping up if you’re using the phone when it arrives.
  • Badge icon – Show a count of notifications on the app icon.
  • Lock screen – Choose to show/hide notification content and icons on the lock screen.
  • Override Do Not Disturb – Allow notifications to ignore Do Not Disturb or sleep modes.

I recommend exploring all the options available in the app’s notification settings. Each app may have additional custom controls beyond the basics. Get familiar with what’s possible so you can tweak notifications to suit your preferences.

According to Google’s Android support, notification settings allow granular control over alerting and visibility.

Test the Changes

Once you have customized the notification sound for a specific app, it’s important to test that the changes were applied successfully:

  • Open the app and trigger a notification by sending a message, creating a calendar event, etc. depending on the functionality of the app.
  • When the notification pops up, listen for the sound. You should hear the custom notification sound you selected instead of the default system sound.
  • If the custom sound does not play, go back to the notification settings for that app and confirm that a different sound was properly selected and saved.

Testing right away ensures the custom notification sound is working as expected. If not, you can troubleshoot while the steps to change the sound are still fresh in your mind. With the unique notification sound enabled, you can easily identify alerts from that particular app without having to visually check your device.

Change for Other Apps

Each app can have a unique notification sound. If you want to set different notification sounds for additional apps, you can repeat the steps for other apps:

  1. Open Settings and go to Applications or Apps.
  2. Select the specific app.
  3. Tap on “Notifications”.
  4. Change the “Default notification sound” to your desired sound for that app.

Following these steps, you can customize the notification sound for other apps as well. This allows your most important apps to have unique sounds so you can easily distinguish notifications.

Conclusion

In summary, we covered the main steps to change the notification sound for a single app on Android. This includes accessing the App Notifications settings, selecting the desired app, changing the sound option to use a custom notification, choosing the sound file, and adjusting additional notification settings like importance level or enabling notification dots.

Setting a custom notification sound for an individual app can help personalize and distinguish alerts on your device. With unique sounds assigned to your most important apps, you can identify notifications just by the sound without even having to look at the screen.

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