How customizable and separate are notification and system sound levels

[joeldf]

Good evening.

First time posting here - though I've been at Crackberry for years.

It looks like I'm getting an S7 from AT&T this week, or next. Been with BlackBerry since 2007 and running a near 3-year-old Z10 right now. However, the deal we are getting upgrading both my phone and my son's (from a Galaxy S4 to a free S6) was too good to pass up. I was originally going to go for the Priv, but the deal was too good only paying for one phone and getting two.

I generally know what to expect going to Android - already running several android apps on my Z10 using a patched Google Play Store and already having a Google account. Also, keep up with my son's S4, and S2 before that. But, one part that I never dealt with are the notification sounds.

One of the best features of BlackBerry phones were how customizable the notifications were, and how the volume of notifications were independent of each other. One email account can be one level, another email account can be another level, text messages can be yet another level, and phone ringtone still another level. And all of these levels can be independent from the volume of any media playback - such as games, videos, music files, whatever and using the volume buttons on such media would not affect the notification sounds. What I never liked about my wife's iPhone was how the volume of everything was controlled by the volume rockers all at one time - turn down a running video ad in a website, and you also turned down the phone ringtone, which you wouldn't know until the phone rang and you missed the call. Now, to be honest, I don't know if recent iOS updates changed this.

Does Android have this level of customization? If not, are there any apps that can do this?

I do realize that this may be more of an OS issue than specifically a Samsung issue, but I still figured I'd ask here.

One thing that is more specific to the S7 - the notification LED. How customizable is that? I know there are apps like Light Flow that can add more options, but do these work well for the S7's LED? Can I set a different color for each of my 2 email accounts I plan to set up on the phone, and a third color for texts?

I'd appreciate whatever info you can pass along, so that I'll know what to expect.

Thanks.

 

[chanchan05]

1. Android has 4 volume controllers: Ringtone, Media, Notifications, and System. Each is separate from the other and is controlled by the volume rocker depending on the app in the foreground. For example, you are in a music player or game, the volume rocker will control the media volume. In other places, it will control the ringtone. Each volume can also be adjusted any time. Pressing on the volume rocker will show a volume slider, on the far right of which will be an arrow pointing down. Pressing on that will reveal the other 3 volume sliders for you to adjust.

2. Android notification volumes are the same for email, sms, or whatever. You can however assign ring tones for specific people or email accounts. This is of course out of the box. Lightflow allows you to not just have different ringtones per app, but also different volumes. I do not know however how well this works if you also use differing ring tones per contact as I haven't really used this function.

3. Light flow works well with the S7 as far as my usage goes. There was only one bug that was reported that really needed a major workaround, and that was that the stock email, gmail and sms apps all refuse to change LED color from blue despite the Lighflow setting. Currently there is a work around, and Lightflow developers are currently in communication with the Android OS team asking that a LED notification control API be made so that they can have better control over the LED.

 

[joeldf]

Thanks, it sounds promising.

I was figuring on getting less than what I can do now, but if I can get close, I'll be happy. There's always the option of editing the ringtone files so that some are quieter versions. I like my email sounds to be a bit quiet, but texts to be louder, and the phone ringtone to be able to wake me up.

Speaking of ringtones... while I don't use different ringtones for different contacts, I do prefer to have calls from only certain contacts (wife, work associates, parents, friends...) actually ring the phone, while all other calls - whether from the rest of my contacts or not - go silent. If it's someone who really wants to talk to me, they'll leave a voicemail. If it's a telemarketer or spam caller, they don't leave messages. I know there are call blockers, but it's easier to have the phone just not ring for everything but certain contacts. Especially since I'll leave the phone on my desk at work, and if a call comes in that isn't on my "whitelist", it will still light the screen up, I can see what the number is, and if it is someone I don't mind talking to, then I'll answer.

Will I be able to do that - or something close to that - on the S7?

Thanks again.

 

[chanchan05]

Thanks, it sounds promising.

I was figuring on getting less than what I can do now, but if I can get close, I'll be happy. There's always the option of editing the ringtone files so that some are quieter versions. I like my email sounds to be a bit quiet, but texts to be louder, and the phone ringtone to be able to wake me up.

Speaking of ringtones... while I don't use different ringtones for different contacts, I do prefer to have calls from only certain contacts (wife, work associates, parents, friends...) actually ring the phone, while all other calls - whether from the rest of my contacts or not - go silent. If it's someone who really wants to talk to me, they'll leave a voicemail. If it's a telemarketer or spam caller, they don't leave messages. I know there are call blockers, but it's easier to have the phone just not ring for everything but certain contacts. Especially since I'll leave the phone on my desk at work, and if a call comes in that isn't on my "whitelist", it will still light the screen up, I can see what the number is, and if it is someone I don't mind talking to, then I'll answer.

Will I be able to do that - or something close to that - on the S7?

Thanks again.

You can set up the Do Not Disturb function of the phone to only allow certain calls and notifications to generate audio alerts.

This is actually a standard feature of Android.

 

[joeldf]

You can set up the Do Not Disturb function of the phone to only allow certain calls and notifications to generate audio alerts.

This is actually a standard feature of Android.

I had read about the Do Not Disturb function in general terms. I'll look into that as a possibility.

Thanks again. It will be interesting.