Having a custom ringtone or notification sound can help personalize your device and make it easier to identify your own calls, texts, and alerts. While ringtones are specifically for incoming calls, notification sounds can be used for texts, email, calendar events, and apps. Many android devices make it easy to save ringtones, mp3 files, and other audio clips as custom notification sounds.
Requirements for Notification Sounds
Before you can set a custom notification sound, you need to have an audio file saved on your device that meets the following requirements:
- File format: MP3, WAV, OGG
- Bit rate: no more than 300 kbps
- File size: Less than 1-2 MB
- Length: Less than 30 seconds
If you want to save a ringtone as a notification sound, it needs to meet these requirements first. You can use free audio editing apps to convert files if needed.
Finding Notification Sounds
There are a few ways to find notification sounds to use on your device:
- Use preloaded sounds: Android devices come with a selection of ringtones, notifications, alarms, and ui sounds already installed. You can browse these and select one to set as your default notification.
- Download from apps: Apps like Zedge have thousands of free ringtones, notification sounds, alarm tones, and other audio clips to browse and download.
- Create your own: Use audio recording or editing apps to create custom sounds and export them as mp3, wav, or ogg files to use as notifications.
- Convert audio clips: Take short audio snippets from songs, YouTube videos, sound effects, or other sources and convert them to the right format to use as custom sounds.
Saving Notification Sounds on Your Device
Once you’ve found or created a sound file to use, here are the steps to save it as a notification sound on your Android device:
- Copy the sound file to your device. You can download it directly, transfer via USB, use cloud storage, etc. Save it in a downloads or audio folder.
- Open your device’s Settings app and go to Sounds & vibration > Notification sounds.
- Tap the Add icon (a plus sign) to add a new notification sound.
- Navigate to the sound file you want to use and select it.
- The sound will now appear in your list of notification sounds.
- Tap on the sound in the list to preview it.
- Choose the app and notification type you want to set the sound for.
Once set, you will hear your custom notification sound when that particular notification is triggered by the designated app. You can repeat these steps to add multiple custom sounds for different apps and notifications.
Setting Custom Notification Sounds in Apps
Some Android apps allow you to set custom notification sounds just within that app itself. The steps can vary depending on the app, but generally you will go into the app’s settings and find the notifications section. There should be an option to use a custom sound and you can select a file saved on your device. Any sounds set in individual apps will override the global notification sound set in your device Settings.
Troubleshooting Issues With Notification Sounds
If your custom notification sound isn’t working properly, here are some troubleshooting tips:
- Make sure the sound file meets the requirements for Android notification sounds (mp3, wav, or ogg under 30 seconds, under 1-2MB file size).
- Confirm the sound file is actually saved on your device’s internal storage. It can’t be on the SD card.
- Double check that the sound is set for the correct app and notification type.
- Try previewing the sound again in Settings to confirm it plays properly.
- Check app permissions and make sure notifications are enabled for the app.
- Restart your device and test the notification sound again.
- Try converting the audio clip to a simpler format like AAC or AMR if it still doesn’t work.
Additional Ways to Customize Notifications
Along with custom notification sounds, there are other ways to personalize event alerts on your Android device:
- Vibration patterns – Create unique vibration pulses for different contacts and apps.
- Popup notifications – Configure how and where they appear on the screen.
- Notification lights – Set blinking light colors for specific notifications.
- Heads-up notifications – Enable popups for priority alerts.
- Badges – Show counter badges on home screen icons.
- Silent notifications – Set times or locations to go into Do Not Disturb mode.
Conclusion
Saving a custom ringtone or audio clip as a notification sound on your Android device is straightforward once you have a properly formatted sound file. Make sure to follow the steps precisely within the Settings app in order to successfully assign the custom sound to the desired notification. Take advantage of the many options for further customizing different types of notifications to make your device truly your own.