• Android Telegram Keeps Switching Notification Sound To Default Browser
• Android Telegram Keeps Switching Notification Sound To Default App
• Android Telegram Keeps Switching Notification Sound To Default Mode

This guide is specifically for Google’s “Messages” app (com.google.android.apps.messaging) – this is the default / stock messages app that comes with many new Android phones, including the newest Pixel 4A model. However, some of the advice about generic notifications settings is applicable to all apps and Android in general. Especially for apps that have their own notification controls.

Changing notification sounds is quite simple and the process is nearly identical on all version of Android out there. Today’s imagery is from a vanilla Android 5.0.1 Lollipop device. Turning on Do Not Disturb mode is an extreme move but with Android Oreo and higher, Notification categories were heaven-sent to keep those Android notifications in check in a manageable manner. How do Notification Categories work? Notification Categories work by allowing you to select what kind of notifications you want to receive from each app.

Some messages take precedence over others, so having the same notification tone for all your threads isn't always the best solution. Fortunately, Samsung Messages has a simple option you can tweak to set custom sounds for specific chats to help you stay on top of priority conversations and reply much faster. Use default sound output device on Nov 4, 2015. Auchri added the enhancement label on Nov 4, 2015. Auchri mentioned this issue on Nov 4, 2015. Voice messages wont play if 2 or more sound output devices active Telegram0.9.6 (Windows 7) #1262. This was referenced on Mar 7, 2016. Runtime Default Playback Device Switch #1741. Open Settings and go to Sound (or Sounds and notifications on some phones). Now, check the slider for Ring volume, and should be at the max level. You can also Use Different Notification Sound For All Apps if you have difficulty hearing the default sound. Disable Do Not Disturb.

The Issue

The problem is pretty straightforward.

After getting a brand new phone (Pixel 4a, with Android 10), incoming text messages / SMS no longer triggered an audible notification sound. Even after tweaking global notifications settings and setting ringer volume to maximum, no text messages could trigger an audio alert. There would be a visual notification shown, but no sound.

Searching across the internet, it is clear this is not an isolated incident. At first, I was going to blame myself, but when the same exact thing happened to some one else I knew, I realized there is a clear issue at hand.

The Fix

After tweaking every setting I could find related to notifications, I finally found the solution in a menu buried several layers deep. Turns out that Messages has its own notifications settings that override global settings, and for some reason, the notification sound was set to none! Setting it to any other sound option fixed it.

There are a few ways to get to this buried setting.

1. Open the “Messages” App
2. Tap the three dots in the upper right to open the menu, then select Settings
3. Tap the Notifications menu option
4. Tap the Incoming messages menu option
5. Make sure the setting on this page is set to “Alerting” and not “Silent”. Now look towards the bottom of the screen and tap the Advanced label to expand the advanced sub menu
6. In advanced sub menu, look for the Sound option. If it is set to None, then this is definitely your issue!
7. Tap the Sound option and select one of your ringtones / notification; this will be the sound that plays when you get a new message. Make sure to hit save!
8. You are done! Try to test it by having someone send you a text message. Or use a site like this one to test it.

Alternatively, you can get to the setting by starting a slightly different way:

1. Long press the “Messages” app icon in your app drawer or home screen, and tap the App Info option or icon
2. Tap the Notifications option
3. You can now start on step 4 of the above section.

If you want to see these steps in action, below is a screen recording I made:

You can also find the video above here.

If this fix did not solve your issue, feel free to explore the “Further troubleshooting” section below.

The Culprit / Theories

Since I observed this issue happening to two different users who were both switching to new phones (with Android 10), my guess is that it has to do with Google’s protocol for device migration and setting sync (related: backup overview). My theory is something like this:

1. User is on an older version of Android. They have their messaging app notifications set to either default notification sound, a system specific sound, or a custom sound
2. User gets a brand new Android phone and / or upgrades to Android 10+
3. The Android setup process tries to transfer the old setting, but the previous setting is not an option on the new phone. This could be because the ringtone file did not get transferred over, the previous user used a system level notification sound which was deprecated in Android 10, or some other reason.
4. Rather than default to a specific notification sound, the system defaults to null / None.

If I could talk to a Google engineer, I would point out that this feels like a UX process that could be improved. I would argue that the majority of users probably want some sound set as the default, even if they can’t keep their old setting.

Further troubleshooting

If the above fix did not solve your issue, here are some further things you can try (in combination with making sure the above has been tried):

• Make sure there is a default notification sound set:
  • Search: “default notification sound”
  • Path: Settings -> Apps & Notifications -> Notifications -> Advanced -> Default notification sound
• Make sure “Do Not Disturb” mode (aka DND) is OFF
  • Search “do not disturb” OR “dnd”
  • Path: Settings -> Sound -> Do Not Disturb
  • You can also toggle DND through the Android pull down shade, and depending on your settings, you might also have DND configured to turn on automatically based on schedule and/or other triggers
  • If it is ON, you should see a persistent icon in the status bar that looks something like this:
• Make sure your Ring volume is not set to zero / vibrate only
  • It used to be that “ringtone” volume was separate from “notifications” volume, but starting with Android 10 (?), these have been combined into one setting: “Ring volume”. If it is set to zero or vibrate only, then no notifications will emit sound (unless there is an app-specific override?)
    • If it is set to vibrate only, you should see this icon in your status bar:
    • If it is set to zero and vibrate is off, you should see this icon in your status bar:
  • Warning: Using the physical rocker buttons on your phone to adjust volume no longer adjusts the ring volume (starting with Android Pie?) – it adjusts the Media volume. I agree with those dissenting that this is a silly change for Android to make.

This video does an excellent job of covering an exhaustive list of reasons why incoming messages might not be triggering audio alerts:

Android Telegram Keeps Switching Notification Sound To Default Browser

It is also uploaded here, and here.

The Settings page shows information about the current user (photo, name, online/offline status and mobile number). Users can change their name by tapping the pencil icon.

The Log Out button logs out the current user from the account and deletes all data stored locally on the device with the exception of the authorization key.

1. Settings Screen

The “Ask a Question” button starts a chat with a Telegram support number. Instead of “No messages yet…” the empty blank chat with Telegram support says “Got a question about Telegram?”. The Telegram account is always shown as a name (not a mobile phone number).

The “Telegram FAQ” opens the FAQ page http://telegram.org/faq in the browser of the phone.

2. Edit Name

Users can change their name by tapping on the pencil icon or by choosing the Edit option in the Action Menu. A tap on the profile picture allows to change it. The user can either take a picture from camera or select an existing photo from the gallery.

3. Privacy and Security

Android Telegram Keeps Switching Notification Sound To Default App

There are three possible options for the Last Seen setting: Everybody, My Contacts and Nobody — and two additional lists: Always share with (appears when My Contacts or Nobody is selected) and Never share with (appears when My Contacts or Everybody is selected).

The Blacklist is also available from Settings. The plus icon in the application bar allows to add new users to the list of Blocked Users – either from Chats or from Contacts.

4. Notifications and Sounds

Notification settings allow users to turn on and off notifications for private chats and groups, choose a notification sound and switch off message previews in notifications. Users can also reset all custom notification settings.

Android Telegram Keeps Switching Notification Sound To Default Mode

5. Chat Settings

Chat Settings allow users to enable autosaving all incoming media to Gallery.

6. Chat Background

Users can select a custom chat background from Gallery or choose one of the preloaded Telegram backgrounds account.getWallPapers. The default background is the blue background with cats and dogs.