Allow selected sound and vibration notifications on Android

August 7, 2019 7:21 AM

I virtually always have my Android phone on silent, and this is good because it means I'm not getting vibrations or noises to alert me to every new notification. However, it means that I miss the notifications of messaging apps where my close friends and family are trying to contact me and so I end up replying to them much later than I would prefer. What is the best way (if there is one) to keep my phone on silent while allowing sound and vibrations for notifications from only certain apps or people?
posted by Panthalassa to Technology (6 answers total)

The do not disturb feature does have exceptions and is fairly customizable, have you started there?
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:28 AM on August 7, 2019

Oh cool! I swear to god last time I checked Do Not Disturb I couldn't find anything like this.
posted by Panthalassa at 7:32 AM on August 7, 2019

You can star contacts and the phone will always ring from those callers.
posted by DarlingBri at 7:34 AM on August 7, 2019

I have my default notification sound as silent. Messaging apps/sip and work email/phone when I'm on call are the only apps that have a non-silent notification.
posted by nobeagle at 8:13 AM on August 7, 2019

I set my ringtone to a silent "tone" & use custom alert sounds/ringtones for people whose texts/calls I don't want to miss. I use Textra for text messaging, I don't know if this level of customization is available for other messaging apps.
posted by ellebee at 8:14 AM on August 7, 2019

Something which tripped me up: if you have your phone on Silent, you will still not receive sound or vibration notifications from the people you have whitelisted in the Do Not Disturb function. You need to change from Silent to Ring—but this is really just Ring for the people you have whitelisted: no other notifications will make vibrations or sound (unless you choose to enable them).
posted by Panthalassa at 1:57 AM on August 8, 2019