S7 Notifications when screen is unlocked

[turbo2ltr]

Coming from an S3, whenever I got a text message, it played the sound. This happened if the screen was on or off. On the S7, it seems that if the device is unlocked, it doesn't bother playing the notification sound. I have missed MANY text messages because I read one, reply, and then put my phone down, letting the screen timeout in a minute. If a text comes in before the screen times out, I get no notification of it. It could be hours before I pick up my phone again only to see there was a reply seconds after I sent a text.

Is there any way to make it behave like my S3 and send a sound EVERY time a text comes in? I have searched high and low and don't see anything.
I think think the hangouts app does the same thing..

Thanks.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome back! Does this happen only if the messaging app is still open, or even if you've exited or backed out of the app?

 

[turbo2ltr]

Upon further testing, it only *doesn't* notify if the person whose conversation I'm in sends me a message. If I'm in A conversation and B person texts, it will notify even if the screen is on. But if I'm in A conversation and A person texts, no noise, no notification if the screen is on.

I'm guessing this is by design. Just not what I'm used to. What bugs me is that if that message comes in and then the screen times out, there is no notification LED. If I were to launch another app from the lock screen, I would never know there was a text sitting there unread.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[B. Diddy]

This is a fairly common complaint. I think the rationale was that if the user has the messaging app open to that conversation, and another message comes in, the user must be able to see it in real time, so there's no need for a notification tone as well. But you're right, it doesn't help if the phone is not in your hand and you're not looking directly at it.

I think Verizon's Messages+ app (which I think can be used on non-Verizon phones) will give you notifications even if you're in the thread. Also try Textra or Chomp SMS.