How to customize Messenger notification Sound for specific person?

Being able to customize Messenger notification sounds for individual contacts can be extremely beneficial. When you receive a lot of Messenger notifications, having different sounds for important contacts helps you identify who is messaging without having to look at your phone. For example, you may want to assign a unique notification sound for your spouse, your boss, or close family members so you’ll know it’s them messaging you. Having custom sounds can help you prioritize responding to the most important people in your life. You’ll never have to guess who messaged you again!

In this guide, we’ll walk through how to customize notification sounds in Messenger for both iOS and Android devices. With just a few quick settings adjustments, you can make sure you never miss an important message again by assigning unique sounds to key contacts.

Prerequisites

Before customizing Messenger notification sounds for specific contacts, you’ll need to make sure you have the latest version of the Messenger app installed on your mobile device. Messenger is available for both iOS and Android operating systems.

Here are the requirements for running Messenger:

On iOS, you’ll need iOS 10.0 or later.
On Android, Messenger supports Android 4.1 or later.

Make sure to update to the latest version of Messenger through the App Store or Google Play Store. Older versions may not support custom notification sounds for individual contacts.

Access Notification Settings

To access Messenger’s notification settings on your Android device, you first need to open the Messenger app itself. Once the app is launched, tap on the three horizontal lines menu icon in the top left corner of the screen. This will open up a menu. Select “Settings” from this menu which will take you to Messenger’s settings screen.[1]

On the Settings screen, look for the “Notifications & sounds” option and tap on it. This will open up the page where you can manage all your notification settings for Messenger.

[1] https://www.facebook.com/help/messenger-app/330627630326605

Toggle Custom Notifications

To enable custom notifications for individual contacts in Messenger, you first need to turn on the setting to allow per-contact customizations. Here are the steps:

1. Open the Messenger app and tap on your profile photo in the top left corner.

2. Go to Settings & Privacy > Notifications.

3. Toggle on “Customize Notifications” to enable per-contact notification settings.

According to Facebook’s Help Center, this setting allows you to set different notification sounds for individual contacts in Messenger. Once enabled, you’ll be able to customize notifications for each contact.

Some users on Reddit and Stack Exchange have reported issues getting custom notifications working properly, so troubleshooting may be required if you run into problems after toggling this on.

Change Sound for Individual

To choose a custom notification sound for an individual contact in Messenger:

Open Messenger and go to your messages with the desired contact.

Tap the target contact name at the top of the chat to open their contact profile.
Scroll down on their profile screen and find the “Notifications & sounds” section. Tap on “Text tone” option. [1]
This will open a menu with a list of built-in system notification sound options. Select the new sound you want just for this person’s messages.

The “Default” option will set this contact back to your global notification sound.
Test it out by sending a message between you and that contact to confirm the custom sound works as expected.

Now when that contact sends you a message on Messenger, you will hear the unique notification sound to help you easily identify incoming messages from them. Repeat this process for other key contacts you want to customize.

Recommended Notification Sounds

Some fun, appropriate custom sound options to consider for notification sounds on Messenger include:

Thunder Sound Effects – For someone who makes a dramatic entrance, you can choose fierce thunder SFX
Party Horn Sound Effect – For a friend who loves to celebrate, customize their notification to a party sound

Birds Chirping- For an outdoorsy person, use peaceful nature sounds like birds chirping
Piano Sound – For the musically inclined, customize their notification to piano notes or other instruments
Cat Meow – For cat lovers, make their notification a cute cat meowing

You can find many free sound options like these online to download (e.g. from OrangeFreeSounds) and then upload to Messenger for custom notifications. Just be sure to use short audio clips under 30 seconds.

Troubleshooting

If you’ve set up custom notification sounds for individual Messenger contacts but aren’t hearing the sounds, there are a few things to try:

Check that the notification sound you selected is properly saved for that contact by going back into their notification settings. Sometimes the change doesn’t save properly.

Confirm that all notifications sounds are enabled at the system level on your device. Go into Settings > Sounds & Haptics and make sure that notification sounds are toggled on.
Try force quitting the Messenger app and reopening it to refresh the settings.
Toggle the custom notifications for that contact off and back on again to retrigger the sound setting.

As suggested in this Reddit thread, check that you don’t have overrides set at the conversation level for that contact. The conversation level overrides the contact level sound settings.
On Android, confirm that none of your power saving or battery optimization features are preventing Messenger from producing sound alerts. You may need to whitelist the app.

If issues persist across multiple contacts, you likely have a system-wide notification sound issue with Messenger rather than just a custom sound problem. Refer to Messenger’s notification troubleshooting guide for additional help.

Customize Other Notification Settings

In addition to customizing notifications for individual contacts, Messenger also allows you to customize other notification settings like muting, priorities, badges, and previews.

To access these settings in Messenger:

Open the Messenger app and tap on your profile picture in the top left

Scroll down and tap on “Notifications & Sounds”
Under “Customize Notifications” you can adjust notification settings like:
- Mute – Disable sound and vibration notifications for set periods of time
- Priorities – Choose which contacts show notifications when Do Not Disturb is on
- Badges – Show notifications badges for new messages
- Previews – Show message previews on the lock screen and in notifications

Adjusting these additional notification settings can further help you control which Messenger alerts you see and hear based on your preferences. For example, muting notifications overnight or only allowing priority contacts to notify you when Do Not Disturb is enabled.

Managing Multiple Contacts

When you have many contacts, setting a custom notification sound for each one can become challenging. Here are some tips for managing custom alerts for multiple Messenger contacts:

Create contact groups – Group your most important contacts into a “Favorites” group to easily manage their custom sounds as a batch.

Use distinct sounds – Choose notification sounds that are very different from each other to easily identify contacts when you hear the alert. For example, use a bird chirp for one friend, a doorbell for another, etc.
Note connections – Make a note in each contact’s Messenger settings connecting their custom sound to them. For example, “Sara’s sound: Birds chirping” can help remember why you chose it.
Test regularly – Every so often, test that the custom sounds are still working properly for your key contacts.

While managing custom notifications takes some effort, it’s worth it to easily identify who is contacting you. Choose notification sounds wisely to best suit each contact.

Conclusion

Customizing notification sounds for individual contacts in Messenger can make it much easier to identify who is messaging you without having to look at your phone. Setting a unique sound for important contacts like family members, significant others, or close friends enables you to quickly know if a message is from someone you likely want to respond to right away.

Additionally, having custom sounds can help eliminate confusion if you get a lot of messages from different people. Rather than trying to remember who has which generic notification sound, associating a special sound with specific contacts guarantees there won’t be any mix-ups.

Overall, taking the time to personalize notification sounds based on the contact is a simple but effective way to improve your messaging experience. Whether it’s a silly song for your best friend or a professional tone for your boss, you’ll no longer have any doubt as to who just messaged you when you hear that custom sound go off.

So recap, custom notification sounds allow you to instantly identify incoming messages, reduce confusion when getting several notifications at once, and add a bit of fun personalization to your interactions in Messenger.