Can you make notifications louder?

Notifications on smartphones allow apps, services, and the phone’s operating system to get the user’s attention and share information. Notifications typically involve a sound, vibration, or visual alert to notify the user of incoming calls, text messages, app updates, calendar events, and other happenings.

While notifications are useful for keeping users informed, they can be problematic for some people to hear and perceive. Individuals who are hard of hearing, deaf, or have other auditory challenges may struggle to notice standard notification sounds. Older individuals and those with cognitive impairments may also have difficulty discerning notifications through traditional audio/visual means.

Default Notification Sounds

The default notification sounds on major mobile platforms like iOS and Android are quite limited. On iOS, there is just a single default notification sound that plays for all app notifications. This sound cannot be changed at a system-level and applies to all apps equally. Android has historically provided more options for default notification sounds, such as letting users choose between sounds like “Lollipop” or “Marshmallow.” However, recent versions of Android have reduced the number of system default options down to just one default notification sound ^[1]. Generally, the default notification sounds on both iOS and Android platforms are meant to be noticeable yet innocuous. Many users often find them lacking in terms of customizability.

Notification Volume

The notification volume setting allows you to control the volume level specifically for notifications on your device. This lets you set a volume that is independent of your device’s overall system volume or media playback volume.

To adjust notification volume on Android, open the Settings app and go to Sound & vibration. Tap on Default notification sound and a volume slider will appear. Drag this to your desired volume level for notifications. On an iPhone, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics and adjust the slider for “Ringers and Alerts”.

Setting notification volume independently from other volume levels is useful if you want notifications to be loud enough to grab your attention, while keeping system sounds and media at a lower volume. It also allows you to mute notifications without muting everything.

Some key points about notification volume:

It controls volume of all notifications, not individual apps.
Changes made will apply to future notifications.

On Android, requires Android 7.0 or higher.
Can help make notifications more noticeable if you tend to miss them.
Useful for controlling notifications during meetings, at night, or in other situations.

Adjusting the notification volume setting is an easy way to manage how loud or quiet you want your various notification alerts to be.

Using a Ringtone as a Notification Sound

One way to make notifications louder on Android phones like Samsung is to set a custom ringtone as the notification sound. As the Samsung support page explains, you can select any song or audio file stored on your device and use it for notifications rather than the default sounds.

To do this on a Samsung device, go to Settings > Sounds and vibration > Notification sounds and select a custom ringtone. On other Android devices, go to Settings > Sound & vibration > Default notification sound > My Sounds and tap the + icon to select a custom audio file. Just make sure the audio file is saved on your device storage or SD card.

Using a louder custom ringtone can help make notifications more audible compared to subtle default sounds. You can pick energetic songs, custom audio files, or even recorded voice clips to use. Just be aware of your surroundings when using loud or disruptive sounds.

3rd Party Apps

One option for making notification sounds louder on Android is to use third party apps that are designed specifically for this purpose. An example is High Volume Notifications, which provides a library of over 50 customizable high volume ringtones and sounds that can be set as notification tones. The developer touts these notification sounds as being loud and clear for improved alerting.

Other apps like Volume Booster and Volume Maximizer work by amplifying the overall volume output on your device beyond the built-in maximum levels. This allows all notification sounds to become louder. However, amplifying volume to very high levels can damage hearing over time, so caution is advised.

The main benefit of third party apps is the ability to customize and increase notification volume beyond what is available in the base Android OS. The tradeoff is that these apps require additional battery power and memory usage to run continuously in the background.

Custom Vibration Patterns

Creating customized vibration patterns for notifications on your iPhone can help make alerts more noticeable and identifiable. By assigning unique vibration patterns to specific apps, contacts, or types of notifications, you can discern different alerts without having to look at your phone.

For example, you could set a short, quick vibration pattern for texts and a longer, more complex pattern for phone calls. This allows you to detect if you’re getting an urgent call versus a non-urgent text message just by the vibration. Custom patterns are especially useful if you often have your iPhone set to vibrate/silent mode.

Custom vibration patterns can also be helpful for accessibility. Those with hearing impairments can set extended or distinctive vibrations to make sure they notice incoming alerts. This allows them to rely more on vibration cues from their iPhone.

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Light-Based Alerts

One way to make notifications more noticeable is by using light-based alerts. Many modern smartphones have bright LED lights that can flash to signal incoming calls, messages, alarms and other notifications. For example, on an iPhone, the LED flash on the back of the phone lights up when a notification comes in (source).

There are also third party accessories that can provide visual alerting. Devices like flashing alarm clocks, doorbell lights, and notification lights can be programmed to flash brightly when paired with a smartphone. These specialized devices are designed to provide visual alerts for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, ensuring they never miss important signals or alarms (source).

Overall, flashing lights and visual alerts are an effective way to make notifications more perceptible, especially for those with hearing impairments. Smart use of smartphone LED lights along with specialized accessories can greatly improve awareness of alerts.

Smartwatches

Smartwatches can provide an additional surface for louder notifications. Most smartwatches perform vibration alerts and can play sound effects or music through a built-in speaker. The speaker may be louder compared to a smartphone, especially when the watch is worn on the wrist nearer to the ear. In a 2019 study published in Assistive Technology, researchers found that using a smartwatch improved notification awareness compared to just a smartphone, particularly in noisy environments.

Many smartwatches allow you to customize notification sounds, volumes and vibration patterns. This provides more options to set a loud or distinctive alert. For example, some smartwatches from Samsung let you pick a short sound clip like a song chorus to use for specific notifications. Overall, the additional wearable display and audio/haptic feedback of a smartwatch can make notifications more immersive and harder to miss.

Accessibility Settings

Phones running Android and iOS have built-in accessibility settings that can help make notifications louder and more attention-grabbing. On Android devices, go to Settings > Accessibility and look for options like “Sound Notifications” or “Notification Reminders” ¹. These allow you to enable repeating audible alerts for notifications and customize the volume, duration, and frequency of the alerts. On iPhones, the accessibility settings are under Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual, where you can enable features like “LED Flash for Alerts” to make the camera flash blink for notifications ². There are also options to enable haptic feedback along with audible alerts.

Summary

There are several ways to make your notifications louder and more noticeable on your smartphone. The simplest option is to increase the default media volume, which controls notification sounds. You can also set a custom ringtone or alert sound that is louder than the default. Downloading a third party app like Volume Booster provides more granular control over notification volumes.

Beyond volume, customizing your vibration patterns is another way to make notifications more noticeable, especially if your phone is set to silent. Some phones also allow you to enable a flashing light with notifications. Connecting your phone to a smartwatch provides additional screens and vibration options for alerts. And for those with hearing issues, enabling mono audio and LED flash alerts in accessibility settings can help.

In summary, by adjusting volume levels, customizing sounds/vibrations, adding visual alerts, and using third party apps or smart devices, you can make your smartphone notifications as loud and impossible to ignore as you desire.