If you’re an Android user, you’ll relate to how frustrating it can be when you want to turn down your notification sounds without sacrificing your ringtone volume. Missing important calls just because you’ve turned down the volume to avoid a constant barrage of notifications is a headache that shouldn’t exist. Similarly, if you don’t want to hear calls, but do want to hear your notifications pop off at all times (definitely not for me!) then this inconsistency is just strange at its core.
However, in Android 14’s latest Developer Preview 2 (per 9to5Google, it’s also appearing for some in DP1), Google is finally separating the ringtone and notification sounds into two different options. This should give you the control you need to adjust each volume independently. With a separate “Ring volume” option, indicated by a phone icon with sound waves coming out of it, it’s a win-win in more circumstances. This entire feature update spawns from an older issue tracker ticket submitted to Google as seen below that they’ve apparently taken to heart.
There’s no way to change the notification and ringtone volumes separately, so it’s super annoying to have to turn up the ringtone volume, so that you can hear it in many situations. While you have to actually turn DOWN the volume for most notifications, because they can be really distracting! Notification sounds which are too loud influence the peace of mind and therefore the user experience highly negatively. Even my dog hates it when my phone’s too loud!
Please bring back separate ringtone and notification toggles in future builds! This should be a high priority for you.
I don’t think you need a bug report, am I right? I could add one, in the weird case where you decide that you need one. lol
Google Issue Tracker
Interestingly, this feature was already available in Android 14’s code from a few months back, but it was not enabled until Google flicked the switch on its end just recently. It’s frustrating to think that Pixel devices haven’t had this important separation before now, but it’s not entirely surprising. For years, I’ve pretty much just accepted this as the way it is, but seeing them as two different options now makes me pretty happy.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.